Gunmen attacked and fired rockets at a UN peacekeeping base in Kidal in northern Mali on Saturday, killing two soldiers and a civilian, the UN force said. Olivier Salgado, spokesman for the UN’s deployment in Mali known as MINUSMA, told Al Jazeera the attack was launched before dawn with five rockets landing inside the UN compound.
Salgado said 20 other people were wounded, four seriously. “In the past we’ve had mortar shells land outside, but this time they made it into the camp,” said Salgado. The Special Representative of the UN secretary-general for Mali and head of its mission, Mongi Hamdi, condemned the attack.
“I want to reiterate that these attacks will not impede the determination of the United Nations to support the Malian people and the peace process, including through assisting the implementation of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali”, Hamdi said in a statement. French troops and the UN force are struggling to stabilize the former French colony where armed assailants attacked a hotel in the capital on November 20 and killed 20 people.
Aljazeera.
