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UN Peacekeeper Killed, 4 Wounded in Mali Mine Attack


FILE - Senegalese soldiers of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali MINUSMA (United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) patrol on foot in the streets of Gao, July 24, 2019, a day after a suicide bomb attack.
FILE - Senegalese soldiers of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali MINUSMA (United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) patrol on foot in the streets of Gao, July 24, 2019, a day after a suicide bomb attack.

A U.N. peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit an explosive device in northern Mali, the U.N. mission (MINUSMA) said.

The identity of the attackers was not immediately clear.

U.N. peacekeeping and French forces are stationed in Mali to combat jihadist groups seen as threatening security across Africa's Sahel region.

The soldiers had been participating in a patrol near the village of Aguelhok when the blast hit, U.N. mission spokesman Olivier Salgado tweeted. Elsewhere on Sunday, peacekeepers in Mali's central region of Mopti exchanged fire with members of an unidentified armed group after they came under attack, he said.

"MINUSMA chief (Mahamat Saleh) Annadif strongly condemns the recent resurgence of this type of attacks, particularly in the centre of the country," he said.

The West African country has been in conflict since 2012 when Islamists hijacked an ethnic uprising by Tuaregs in the north. More recently the violence has moved to central Mali, where fighting between farmers and herders has also surged this year.

Jihadist groups have exploited ethnic rivalries in Mali and its neighbours to boost recruitment and render swaths of territory ungovernable.

Less than a week ago, 38 Malian soldiers were killed in a double attack on two army camps in central Mali - among the heaviest losses for Mali's army in recent years.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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