Un Says 5 Peacekeepers Killed İn Mali Attack

Five United Nations peacekeepers were killed on Thursday and three others wounded in a bomb attack in northern Mali that targeted a military vehicle belonging to the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the U.N. said.



United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative and MINUSMA chief Albert Koenders, in a statement, expressed deep sorrow for the death of the troops – all Chadians.



The attack took place on a road between the two villages of Aguelhok and Tessalit in Kidal, the statement said.



Koenders noted that the bombing is the latest in a series of attacks in the same region that left many peacekeepers dead or wounded.



"These attacks will not undermine the determination of the United Nations to support the government and people of Mali in their search for peace," the U.N. official said in his statement.



Koenders called on Malian political leaders, who met in Algeria recently for talks, to shoulder their responsibilities in the light of a declaration they signed in Algiers on September 16.



Tensions erupted in Mali in 2012 following a failed coup and a Tuareg rebellion that ultimately allowed Al-Qaeda-linked groups to take over half the country.



In early 2013, former colonial power France sent troops to Mali and – with the help of Chadian and other African forces – flushed Islamist militants from the country's main northern cities.



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