4 UN peacekeepers killed in Mali attack

International Desk: Four U.N. peacekeepers and a Malian soldier were killed and 21 people were wounded Friday in two separate attacks by unknown assailants in Mali, the U.N. mission there said.

Regional armies, U.N. forces, and French and U.S. soldiers are struggling to halt the growing influence of Islamist militants, some with links to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, in West Africa's Sahel region.

Mali's U.N. mission, MINUSMA, has suffered the highest number of fatalities among current U.N. peacekeeping operations. "I condemn in the strongest terms this attack that has once again befallen the MINUSMA force as well as the [Malian army]," U.N. mission head Mahamat Saleh Annadif said in a statement.

In the first incident Friday, three peacekeepers and a Malian soldier were killed when they came under attack during a joint operation in the Menaka region near the border with Niger, an area that has seen a spike in violence over the last year.

Sixteen other peacekeepers and one civilian were also wounded.

Source: Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/November 25, 2017/A K Azad