At least one United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others seriously injured when their patrol was attacked in northern Mali on Friday, the peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA,said.
The incident took place near the town of Ber, in the region of Tombouctou – an area that has become a hotbed of violent activity over the past decade.
MINUSMA – the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali – said on Twitter that the patrol first encountered an improvised explosive device and was then hit with a direct fire attack.
It did not name perpetrators but said it was a “complex attack” and that updates on casualties would follow.
Armed groups, some linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), have been at war in northern Mali since they arrogated a Tuareg rebellion in 2012.
The violence has spread across the Sahel region under the Sahara and beyond despite international military interventions to help local troops fight back.
Thousands have been killed and more than six million displaced by the fighting, according to the UN.
MINUSMA currently has about 12,000 military personnel deployed in the country.
More than 300 of the peacekeepers have also been killed since the start of the mission in 2013, making it the deadliest UN peacekeeping mission in the world. —Aljazeera
