Nine United Nations peacekeepers in Mali were killed when heavily armed gunmen on motorbikes ambushed their convoy yesterday, the deadliest attack yet on UN troops in Mali, the mission said.
The attack on the peacekeepers from Niger took place in the region of Gao and highlighted a sharp increase in strikes on foreign troops based in Mali to prevent the return of al-Qaeda-linked Islamists who seized the desert north in 2012.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was “shocked and outraged” by the attack, which constitutes a serious violation of international law, and he called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
“They were targeting a convoy that included a fuel truck, knowing full well that an attack on a fuel truck would cause an even greater number of casualties, which adds to the horrendous nature of the crime,” Dujarric said.
He added that 30 peacekeepers have been killed in Mali since the UN mission began in July last year, while another 90 have been wounded. He said yesterday’s attack took place between the northeastern towns of Menaka and Ansongo.
The UN mission said aircraft had been dispatched to secure the zone, which is towards Mali’s border with Niger.
A security source said the peacekeepers were attacked in a dip in the road as it crossed a dry river bed.
UN peacekeepers have deployed across Mali’s north in an effort to secure the country after the separatists and Islamists took advantage of the power vacuum created by a coup in the capital in 2012 to seize the northern regions.
The Islamists were scattered by French forces early last year, elections have been held, and rebels who distanced themselves from extremist groups have begun talks with the Bamako government. But the peace process is moving slowly, and Malian government troops abandoned most positions in the north earlier this year after clashes with rebels.
Since then, Mali has called on the UN mission to deploy more of its mandated force of 12,000 men in the north, a zone awash with smugglers and rebels.