Two members of the peacekeeping force of the United Nations Mission in Mali were killed on Friday in the explosion of an improvised explosive device in the center of the country, the mission’s spokesman, Olivier Salgado, announced on social networks.
A security official said that the two soldiers were part of the Egyptian battalion operating within the framework of the United Nations mission. Salgado added that two other soldiers were wounded.
Also on Wednesday, a Jordanian soldier from the same UN forces was killed, and three others were wounded in an attack on their convoy in Kidal, northern Mali, according to what the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) announced.
The convoy, which included four Jordanian soldiers, came under direct fire and shells for an hour, according to Stephane Dujarric, a United Nations spokesman from New York.
Minusma spokesman Olivier Salgado spoke on social media of a “terrorist” operation, without indicating the identity of the perpetrators.
Dujarric quoted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as “strongly condemning” the attack.
Guterres had stated in a report to the Security Council, which was published by chance on the same day of the attack, that “the MINUSMA sites in Kidal (where the attack took place) were the least vulnerable to attacks.”
“The potential effects of intensifying the mission’s dialogue with key actors in the region,” the report stated.
However, the UN Special Representative in Mali and MINUSMA Head of Mission, Kassem Wani, said in a statement that the latest attack was the fifth such incident in the Kidal region in a week.
The MINUSMA force, numbering regarding 13,000, has been active in Mali since 2013, and is currently the UN mission with the most casualties in the world.
According to the mission, 172 of its members were killed during the attacks.
Mali, a poor country located in the heart of the Sahel region, experienced two military coups in August 2020 and May 2021. The political crisis is accompanied by a serious security crisis that has persisted since 2012 and the emergence of separatist and jihadist rebellions in the north.
The ruling military council distanced itself from France and its partners and turned towards Russia to try to stop the jihadist spread that had expanded towards the center and towards neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
The violence in Mali claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and soldiers, and led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands.
