Five United Nations peacekeepers were killed and some 30 others wounded when suspected Islamists attacked their base in Mali's restive north today, as three Malian soldiers perished in an ambush in the same region, the UN chief and security sources said.
The latest attacks highlighted the vulnerability of the sprawling arid north, where UN peacekeepers and Malian soldiers are struggling in their fight against jihadists who seized vast swathes of territory in 2012.
UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon condemned the "massive" assault on the base of the UN mission in Mali, or MINUSMA, in the strategic town of Kidal and recalled that targeting peacekeepers constitutes a war crime.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said some of the peacekeepers who were killed were from Guinea and that there "may be other nationalities involved", describing the attack early today as a "massive and complex one."
Two Guinean soldiers died on the spot. Two other soldiers, among seven seriously wounded, died later of their injuries, a Guinean source said.
The source said a vehicle "carrying suicide bombers entered the camp shortly the assailants fired rockets."
The raid coincided with a visit to the region by the new chief of MINUSMA, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, who began touring the north on Monday.
Annadif said the raid was an "odious and irresponsible act" which highlighted the "confusion in the ranks of the enemies of peace."
Annadif was in Kidal a week after a peace pact eased tensions in the town, where the arrival early in February of members of a pro-government group had upset the former rebels in the Coordination of Movements of the Azawad.
Azawad is the name the traditionally nomadic Tuareg people of the desert use for territory they regard as their homeland, straddling the southern Sahara and the Sahel.
In a separate attack, three Malian soldiers were killed and two others were wounded near the fabled city of Timbuktu, a Malian military source said.
"Three of our men died today between Timbuktu and Goundam when they were ambushed by jihadists," a Malian officer told AFP. "Two others were wounded but their lives are not in danger."
The defence ministry confirmed the attack, condemning what it termed a "cowardly" strike.
Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said there was a pressing need to secure the north.
