United Nations: Attackers killed one UN peacekeeper and seriously injured eight others on Friday in Mali's northern Timbuktu region, an area where extremists continue to operate, the United
Nations said.
The peacekeepers, all from Burkina Faso, were part of a security patrol that was targeted first by an improvised explosive device and then by direct small arms fire seven kilometers (four miles) from their base in the town of Ber, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The UN Security Council, Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, strongly condemned the attack.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Mali’s transitional authorities to identify the perpetrators of the attack and bring them to justice swiftly.
The Security Council also called for a swift probe and underlined that attacking peacekeepers may not only be a war crime but that involvement in planning, directing, sponsoring or conducting such an attack can lead to sanctions.