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UN peacekeepers killed in Mali explosion
[Al Jazeera] At least three United Nations...an idea whose time has gone... soldiers have been killed and five others seriously maimed by an bomb that detonated as they were escorting a convoy in Mali, according to the West African nation's peacekeeping mission. The convoy was travelling between the towns of Anefis and Gao in Mali's volatile north when the kaboom occurred at around 07:00 GMT, a statement from the mission, MINUSMA, said, adding that the corpse count was provisional. "Our thoughts go firstly to the families and loved ones. We pledge our complete support to them during this painful ordeal," Koen Davidse, the head of MINUSMA, said. "The mission will use all means to ensure that justice is rendered." The UN did not immediately release the nationalities of the soldiers. Despite a 2013 French-led military intervention that drove back gangs - some with links to al-Qaeda - who seized control of Mali's desert north a year earlier, the area remains plagued by violence. MINUSMA began operations in 2013, providing security to and assisting Malian troops. Attacks on UN troops there have made MINUSMA the world body's deadliest peacekeeping mission. Last month, gunnies attacked the peacekeeping force's headquarters in the northern city of Timbuktu killing at least seven people and injuring seven others. On June 8, at least three UN peacekeepers from Guinea were killed in an assault near their base in Kidal. The Group to Support Islam and Moslems, a fusion of three gangs with previous al-Qaeda links that is also known as Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Moslemeen in Arabic, claimed that attack. The violence has also prompted five West African countries, known as G5 Sahel, to launch a new multinational force to fight gangs in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... The new regional anti-terror force is set to include as many as 5,000 soldiers, with one battalion each from Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... , Niger and Chad. Posted by: Fred 2017-09-25 |
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