Militants have launched a rocket attack on a military base for the United Nations in Mali.
UN officials say twenty people including 18 peacekeepers have been wounded in Thursday’s attack in northern Mali.
The military base attacked is also used by French and Malian forces.
A U.N. spokesman Olivier Salgado said six peacekeepers were seriously wounded in the attack on the base in the town of Tessalit in the Kidal region.
In October 2019, a U.N. peacekeeper was killed in a mine site attack in Mali. Four others were also wounded when their vehicle hit an explosive device.
Most parts of Mali have been characterized by violence and conflict.
It is a conflict started in Mali in 2012 when Islamists hijacked an ethnic uprising by Tuaregs in the north.
Mali’s ethnic crisis has often been exploited by Jihadist groups as well to boost recruitment and operations.
Meanwhile the United Nations has warned that the Sahel region is experiencing “a devastating surge in terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets.”
The region’s United Nations envoy, Mohamed Ibn Chambas told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that “unprecedented terrorist violence” had shaken public confidence in the region.
He said attacks had increased five-fold in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger since 2016.
More than 4,000 deaths were reported in 2019 compared with an estimated 770 deaths three years before.
Source: Africafeeds.com
