A United Nations (UN) peacekeeper was killed by a mine blast in northern Mali on Sunday as he was participating in a patrol, according to the head of the UN mission in the country (MINUSMA), El-Ghassim Wane, reported CGTN Africa.
“Terrible news which adds to the long list of our colleagues who have lost their lives during their service in Mali,” Wane wrote on Twitter.
A MINUSMA official said the peacekeeper, who was part of a Guinean contingent, got injured and later succumbed to his injuries at the mission’s hospital.
Jihadists often use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to stage attacks on UN peacekeepers, Malian soldiers and as well as civilians.
MINUSMA was established in 2013 after terrorist groups took control of major towns in the West African nation’s north a year earlier. The mission is considered the most dangerous UN operation in the world as attacks against civilians and peacekeepers continue increasing.
According to official data, MINUSMA has suffered more than 230 fatalities among its civilian and uniformed personnel while more than 350 personnel have been injured.
Negotiations on the UN Security Council extending MINUSMA’s mandate are ongoing against a backdrop of heightened political uncertainty in Mali where security, human rights, and humanitarian conditions continue to worsen.
Mali, a poor and landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, underwent two military coups recently, one in August 2020 when the military ousted elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, and the other in May 2021 when strongman Goita pushed out an interim civilian government and took over the presidency.
The political crisis has gone hand in hand with a serious security crisis since 2012 and the outbreak of separatist and extremist group insurgencies in the north. The country is currently ruled by a military junta that had promised to return power to civilians by February 2022 but subsequently delayed the timetable, prompting sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
