Militants kill three UN peacekeepers, wound 30 in attack on Mali base

Islamic Maghreb, who have staged raids in recent months and have attacked the base several times.

Eight mortar shells were fired at the base and there was also gunfire, said Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission.

The base is part of an attempt by the UN to end violence in Mali following a takeover of the north by Islamists in 2012. A year later a French-led intervention force pushed the militants out of key towns in the region.

The UN mission has not stopped the violence and Islamist militants have expanded their attacks in recent months into other parts of Mali and beyond.

These have included an attack on a hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, in November, in which 20 people died, and one on Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, in January, in which 30 were killed.

There is also a decades-long separatist struggle in northern Mali by Tuaregs.

Radouane Ag Mohamed Aly, spokesman for the separatist Co- ordination of Azawad Movements, said yesterday’s attack had been conducted by Islamist militants. There was no official confirmation or claim of responsibility for the Kidal attack.

In a separate incident yesterday, three soldiers were killed and two others wounded in an ambush of a military convoy on the road between Timbuktu and Goundam. – Reuters