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Armed men attack UN peacekeeping base in northern Mali, kill three

Saturday, 28 November 2015 9:43 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 28 November 2015 10:41 AM ]

A UN peacekeeping soldier stands by a cordon set up at the site of an attack on a UN residence in Bamako, Mali, May 20, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

A group of armed men have attacked a base for the United Nations’ (UN) peacekeepers in northeastern Mali, leaving at least three people dead and 14 others wounded.

An official from the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), whose name was not released in reports, said the assault took place in the town of Kidal on Saturday.

“Our camp … was attacked early this morning by terrorists using rockets,” the official said, adding that two Guinean UN peacekeepers and a civilian contractor were among those who lost their lives in Saturday’s incident.

Another unidentified UN source also said that 14 people sustained injuries in the attack, including three seriously.

The incident came a few days after a siege at the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital city of Bamako, which claimed the lives of 20 people plus two gunmen. Several foreigners were also among the casualties.

On November 20, gunmen held around 170 guests and staff hostage for about nine hours before Malian and international forces stormed the luxury hotel to free the captives.

Both the Macina Liberation Front, a Malian militant group, and the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Mourabitoun group, led by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, claimed responsibility for the hotel attack and hostage-taking.

Mali has been witnessing violence linked to militant activity in its northern region since 2012. The area remains vulnerable to attacks despite a military operation led by France in 2013, which came after the UN Security Council passed a resolution on the deployment of MINUSMA to the region.

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