Two UN peacekeepers killed in an attack in northwestern Mali

Two UN peacekeepers have been killed in an attack in northwestern Mali plagued by jihadist violence.

A logistical convoy of the United Nations peacekeeping mission travelling between the towns of Tessalit and Gao came under attack by unidentified armed men killing the two soldiers, the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA said in a statement.

The convoy had stopped when it was attacked near the village of Tarkint, northeast of Gao, the largest town in northern Mali.

The head of the peacekeeping mission, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, condemned the cowardly acts aimed at paralyzing the mission’s operations on the ground.

MINUSMA has some 13,000 troops drawn from several nations deployed across Mali.

Mali is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in 2012 and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives.

Despite the presence of thousands of French and UN troops, the conflict has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger to the west.

AFP