AFP, BAMAKO: At least five UN peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in central Mali by suspected militants on Sunday, the UN and police sources said.
The attack is the first time the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, has recorded fatalities in the centre of a country long beset by violence in its vast and desolate north.
“According to preliminary information, five peacekeepers were killed. Another was seriously hurt and is being evacuated,” MINUSMA said in a statement.
The UN did not immediately confirm the nationality of the dead soldiers but a Bamako police source indicated a group of Togolese peacekeepers “came across a mine and a terrorist attack some 50 kilometres out of Mopti.”