BAMAKO: Two UN peacekeepers died and several were wounded on Friday in central Mali after their vehicle hit a mine, the UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said in a statement.
“This morning at around 0600, a vehicle in a MINUSMA logistics convoy hit a mine near Douentza, Mopti region,” the statement said, without giving the nationality of those involved.
The deaths come after militant gunmen killed 10 Chadian peacekeepers and injured at least 25 others in an attack on a UN camp in Aguelhok, northern Mali on Sunday.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack — one of the deadliest strikes against the UN mission in the West African country.
Mali, the eighth largest country in Africa and one of the poorest in the world, has been struggling to return to stability after Islamist extremists linked to Al-Qaeda militants took control of the north of the country in early 2012, prompting France to intervene militarily.
The extremists were routed in a French-led military operation in 2013 but large stretches of the landlocked Sahel state remain out of government control.
In central Mali, the situation has been made even more unstable by a resurgence of violence between ethnic groups over access to land.
A peace deal between the government and armed groups was signed in 2015, but implementation has been slow and attacks have continued in the center and north of the country.
In his latest quarterly report on Mali, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the continued growth of improvised explosive device attacks.
“The number of attacks of this type has increased steadily since January 2018, reaching 192, while there had been only 124 during the same period in 2017,” according to the report.
Some 15,000 peacekeepers and civilians are deployed in Mali as part of the UN mission.
Two UN peacekeepers killed by a mine in central Mali: UN
Two UN peacekeepers killed by a mine in central Mali: UN
- Mali is the eighth largest country in Africa and one of the poorest in the world
- Some 15,000 peacekeepers and civilians are deployed in Mali as part of the UN mission
France honors fallen soldiers in Afghanistan after Trump’s false claim about NATO troops
- In an interview with Fox Business Network in Davos, Switzerland, Trump on Thursday claimed that non-US NATO troops stayed “a little off the frontlines” in Afghanistan
PARIS: A senior French government official said Monday the memory of the French soldiers who died in Afghanistan should not be tarnished following US President Donald Trump’s false assertion that troops from non-US NATO countries avoided the front line during that war.
Alice Rufo, the minister delegate at the Defense Ministry, laid a wreath at a monument in downtown Paris dedicated to those who died for France in overseas operations. Speaking to reporters, Rufo said the ceremony had not been planned until the weekend, adding that it was crucial to show that “we do not accept that their memory be insulted.”
In October 2001, nearly a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, the US led an international coalition in Afghanistan to destroy Al-Qaeda, which had used the country as its base, and the group’s Taliban hosts.
Alongside the US were troops from dozens of countries, including from NATO, whose mutual-defense mandate had been triggered for the first time after the attacks on New York and Washington. In an interview with Fox Business Network in Davos, Switzerland, Trump on Thursday claimed that non-US NATO troops stayed “a little off the frontlines” in Afghanistan.
Ninety French soldiers died in the conflict.
“At such a moment, it is symbolically important to be there for their families, for their memory, and to remind everyone of the sacrifice they made on the front line,” Rufo said.
After his comments caused an outcry, Trump appeared to backpedal and heaped praise on the British soldiers who fought in Afghanistan. He had no words for other troops, though.
“I have seen the statements, in particular from veterans’ associations, their outrage, their anger, and their sadness,” Rufo said, adding that trans-Atlantic solidarity should prevail over polemics.
“You know, there is a brotherhood of arms between Americans, Britons, and French soldiers when we go into combat.”
