SUICIDE
BOMBER KILLS FOUR CHADIAN U.N PEACEKEEPERS IN MALI
A suicide bomber killed four Chadian United
Nations peacekeepers at a military camp in rebel-infested north-eastern Mali on
Wednesday, the UN and the government said. The bomber struck in a car laden
with explosives at the entrance to the barracks, which houses local soldiers as
well as international troops from the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping force.
"Today at 3:30pm (1500 GMT), a suicide
car exploded at the entrance of the MINUSMA camp... The attack killed four
peacekeepers," a statement from the force said. "In addition, the
attack wounded 10 people who are currently being evacuated, including six from
MINUSMA and four members of the Malian armed forces."
The statement quoted MINUSMA chief Bert
Koenders condemning "this cowardly and odious attack" in Aguelhok, a
town of 8,000 in the Ifoghas mountain range. "I am shocked that brave
peacekeepers have again been targeted. This attack will not deter the MINUSMA
from its mission of peace and security in Mali," Koenders said.
A Malian military source had earlier said
that "at least four Chadian and Malian soldiers" were killed. But a
ministry of defence source told Malians initially thought to be among the
dead turned out to have survived and were severely wounded, while the dead were
all Chadian.
It was the first major attack in the Kidal
region since the government and the three main rebel groups signed a ceasefire
deal in May to end days of violence in the northern desert. Around 50 Chadians
have been killed since the country's leader Idriss Deby sent troops to fight
Islamist rebels alongside French troops in Mali at the beginning of last year. Kidal
is the cradle of Mali's Tuareg separatist movement, which wants independence
for a vast swathe of northern desert it calls "Azawad" and which has
launched several rebellions since the 1960s.
- Security challenges 'enormous' -
The country descended into crisis in January
2012, when Tuareg rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of
Azawad launched the latest insurgency. A subsequent coup in Bamako led to
chaos, and militants linked to Al-Qaeda overpowered the Tuareg to seize control
of Mali's northern desert.
A French-led military operation launched in
January 2013 ousted the extremists, but sporadic attacks by armed Islamists
have continued, and the Tuareg demand for autonomy has not been resolved. The
UN has acknowledged that it is struggling to get peacekeeping troops into place
in Mali as France seeks to draw down its force battling militant groups.
Almost 18 months after France intervened to
halt an Islamist march on Mali's capital, the UN mission in the impoverished
west African nation has just 7,250 of the 11,200 troops it intended to build
up, according its website. France is winding down its force from a peak of
around 5,000 soldiers but is to keep 1,000 troops in Mali beyond July.
The UN peacekeepers took over security in
July last year from a pan-African military mission which had been supporting
the French troops. MINUSMA chief Koenders told the UN Security Council in
January the security challenges in Mali are still "enormous".
A roadside bomb struck a UN vehicle in
northern Mali in April, wounding a peacekeeper from Guinea during a UN visit of
foreign dignitaries. Two Senegalese peacekeepers were killed six months ago
when a car filled with explosives crashed into a bank in Kidal's regional capital also called Kidal -that was being guarded by MINUSMA troops.
A Malian jihadist, Sultan Ould Badi, claimed
responsibility for the attack, calling it payback for African countries'
military support for French operations on the continent.
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