3 U.N. soldiers killed in northern Mali

Three United Nations troops were killed and five others were seriously injured Sunday by an explosion in Mali, underscoring the dangers facing the four-year peacekeeping mission in the country.

The forces were escorting a convoy around 7 a.m. along a road connecting the village of Anéfis to the city of Gao in northern Mali when it either hit a mine or triggered an explosive device, according to a statement by the peacekeeping mission, the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali,

known by its French acronym, MINUSMA.

“My thoughts are with those who died and were wounded this morning and their families,” said Koen Davidse, a Dutch diplomat who is the U.N. secretary-general’s deputy special representative for Mali.

He said the mission had sent a “rapid response force” to the scene to secure the area

and to allow the wounded to be cared for.

The names and nationalities of the troops who were

killed and injured were not immediately released.

Mali had been one of West Africa’s most stable nations before 2012, when secular Tuareg separatists began an

uprising. Islamist militants linked to al-Qaida took advantage of the deteriorating security situation.