Nine people are dead after gunmen attacked two United Nations bases in Mali on Monday according to a report by AFP.
A peacekeeper from Togo and a soldier from Mali were killed in an early morning attack in Douentza, in the central region of Mopti, according to a statement from the UN mission (MINUSMA) in the country.
Five Mali UN security guards, a policeman and a civilian contractor were killed in the course of the day by six armed men who attacked the entrance of the UN mission’s camp in Timbuktu in northwestern Mali.
A total of eight jihadists were killed in the two separate attacks. Another peacekeeper was lightly wounded in Douentza and six others, as well as a Malian security guard, suffered injuries in Timbuktu, according to the UN statements.
UN Security Council has urged Mali to investigate the attacks and capture the perpetrators.
“We must combine all our efforts in order to identify and apprehend those responsible for these terrorist acts so that they can answer to their crimes in court,” said UN Special Representative for Mali, Mahamat Saleh Saleh Annadif, in a statement.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the violence in a statement, stressing that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers “may constitute war crimes under international law”.
