Mali: three Chadian peacekeepers killed by a mine in the north

Three Chadian soldiers from the United Nations mission in Mali (Minusma) were killed Sunday, and four seriously injured, when their vehicles jumped on a mine in the north of the West African country, the UN announced.

Two vehicles from the Chadian contingent of the UN during a routine patrol jumped on the mines, in Aguelok, a city in northern Mali. In a press release, the MINUSMA specifies that the assessment amounts to three peacekeepers killed and four seriously wounded. "We will have to make every effort to identify and arrest those responsible for these terrorist attacks, in order to bring them to justice," said Minusma chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif, "bowing to the remains of the brave peacekeepers died for peace in Mali " .

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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres "strongly condemns the attacks by improvised explosive devices against a convoy" of the Minusma, said his spokesman in a press release. "The Secretary-General recalls that attacks against United Nations peacekeepers can constitute war crimes under international law. He calls on the Malian authorities to spare no effort to identify the perpetrators of these attacks so that they can be brought to justice quickly , "he added.

Minusma has around 13,000 soldiers in Mali. The country has been the theater since 2012 of a multifaceted crisis which has left thousands of people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. If a peace agreement was signed in 2015 with the separatist rebels of the north, the country remains prey to the actions of jihadist groups, inter-community tensions, fomented or fanned by these same jihadists, and trafficking of all kinds undermining authority of the State, which is only exercised on parts of the territory. The violence spread from the north to the center of the country, and to the neighbors of Niger and Burkina Faso.