UNMISMA is mourning the death of two peacekeepers killed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Tessalit, Mali’s northern region of Kidal.
Improvised explosive devices have made news again in northern Mali on Monday when two peacekeepers died after their vehicle struck an IED during a search and detection patrol in Tessalit, in the Kidal region, according to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
The incident also left four U.N. soldiers sent to the Sahelian country at war with non-state armed groups affiliated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb or the Islamic State for several years seriously injured.
The nationalities of the victims have not been specified in the series of tweets about the incident by MINUSMA, which said that since the beginning of its presence in Mali in 2013, improvised explosive devices have killed 74 peacekeepers.
The mandate of MINUSMA was renewed last June, against the backdrop of a diplomatic row between Mali and France.
The new authorities in Bamako, who accuse Paris of abandoning the fight against jihadist groups, have opposed maintaining Barkhane’s support operations for the UN Mission.
For the junta that emerged from the May 2021 coup against the president of the transition, which it had itself installed nine months earlier after the putsch against Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, “it’s also essential to better define and articulate the notion of protection of civilians in a context of asymmetric warfare.”
AC/fss/as/APA