United Nations Police (UNPOL) Officers from Benin serving with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and Malian National Guard Officer conduct daily joint patrols in the streets of Gao, to ensure general security, maintain order and offer protection of civilians. They are escorted by Formed Police Unit (FPU) from the Burkina Faso Contingent. (Photo MINUSMA/Marco Dormino)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
UNITED NATIONS – NEW YORK – Two UN peacekeepers from Egypt were killed Tuesday when their armoured vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device some 60 kilometres northeast of Gao in Mali. Another nine Egyptian blue helmets were also seriously injured in the attack on a logistics convoy, on the Tessalit to Gao highway, according to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Mali’s northern region has been in the grip of self-styled Islamic State-affiliated terrorists for years, who have also established themselves in the centre of the country, and in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
“The (UN) Secretary-General expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims, as well as to the Government and people of Egypt, whose soldiers continue to pay the highest price in the service of peace in Mali. He wishes a speedy recovery to the injured,” his spokesperson said in a statement, which also urged the authorities to bring those responsible to justice swiftly.
Mission In West Africa Nation Mali The Most Dangerous In The World For UN Peacekeepers
Senegalese soldier with United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) (Credit: UN photo)
MINUSMA noted that 177 of its soldiers have been killed since it was established nearly a decade ago, including four last month. The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was established by Security Council resolution 2100 of 25 April 2013 to support political processes in that country and carry out a number of security-related tasks. In 2012, Islamist radicals linked to al-Qaeda hijacked an uprising by ethnic Tuareg people and went on to seize cities across northern Mali, holding on for nearly a year until they were forced out by a French military intervention, according to the Washington Post. When the 11,000 U.N. troops arrived in 2013, they were meant to protect a fledgling peace deal and train the Malian army. But Islamist extremists regrouped across the region. It did not take long before the militants started targeting peacekeepers, whom they dubbed “Crusader occupation forces.”
The killings come as the UN Secretary-General issued a statement welcoming the lifting of sanctions imposed on Mali by the West African regional economic bloc, ECOWAS.
