You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Africa North
5 U.N. Peacekeepers Killed in Mali Attack
2016-05-30
At least five U.N. peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in central Mali by suspected turbans on Sunday, the U.N. and police sources said.

The attack is the first time the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, has recorded fatalities in the center 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 U.N. 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 kilometers out of Mopti."

First reports had indicated four Togolese peacekeepers were killed in the mid-morning attack on a MINUSMA convoy some 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of the town of Sevare in Mopti region.

MINUSMA mission head Mahamat Saleh Annadif condemned the attack as an "odious" act of terror.

"I most strongly condemn this abject crime which adds to other terrorist acts targeting our peacekeepers and which constitute crimes against humanity under international law," said Annadif.

Sunday's attack came just two days after authorities reported five Malian soldiers killed and four maimed Friday when their vehicles hit a mine in the north and then came under sustained fire.

Last week also saw five peacekeepers from Chad killed and three others maimed in an ambush in the northeast by Ansar Dine jihadist fighters.
Formally Harakat Ansar al-Dine, "movement of defenders of the faith", Ansar Dine is a Salafist jihadi group established by longtime Tuareg rebel leader Iyad Ag Ghaly in early 2012. It is associated with Al Qaeda in North Africa through Ghaly's cousin Hamada Ag Hama, and has trained Boko Haram cadres. Ansar Dine has received support from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It first came to our attention when it conquered Timbuktu alongside the secular MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) in 2012, requiring French military intervention to drive them out. Several groups have joined and split off from Ansar Dine and each other before and after, associated with various leaders and tribal groups: AQIM-affiliated Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA or Mujao), anti-AQIM Islamic Movement for Azawad (MIA), Signed-in-Blood Battalion (Mourabitounes) -- the AQIM-affiliated part led by Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the ISIS-affiliated part led by someone else -- and others too short-lived to mention. All engage in the usual kidnapping for ransom, drug running, and other traditional jihadi activities, and have appeared with boring regularity in our archives.
The Mali mission is the most dangerous active deployment for U.N. peacekeepers and it has been hit by sharp internal tensions since its launch in July 2013.

With Sunday's attack, at least 64 MINUSMA peacekeepers have been killed while on active service, while another four have died in friendly fire incidents, U.N. figures show.

The north has seen repeated violence since it fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels who allied with jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda in 2012.

The Islamists were largely ousted by an ongoing French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but they have since carried out sporadic attacks on security forces from desert hideouts.

Rival armed factions and smuggling networks mean the region has struggled for stability since Mali gained independence from former colonial power La Belle France in 1960.
Posted by:trailing wife

00:00