Two peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in Mali (Minusma), a woman and a man, were killed in an attack on their patrol in Timbuktu (north) on Friday 16 December. announced the mission on Twitter. Four other UN police officers were injured, one seriously, according to a Minusma press release.
“Deeply shocked by the murder this afternoon in Timbuktu by an unidentified gunman of two of our police officers, including a woman, while they were on patrol,” Minusma head El-Ghassim Wane said on Twitter.
In addition, “the attackers encountered a patrol of the Malian armed forces as they fled [FAMA]. After the exchange of fire, one attacker was killed. On the FAMA side, there is one dead and one slightly injured who left the hospital,” Bakoun Kanté, governor of Timbuktu, told Agence France-Presse (AFP), who assured that the situation is now under control.
A ceremony for the Festival of Coexistence was organized at the Monument of Peace in Timbuktu on Friday, chaired by Minister of Youth and Sports Mossa Ag Attaher. “We had a short opening ceremony and the officials, including the sports minister, retired,” said Kanté.
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Minusma sent “a rapid response force from the countryside to the scene of the crime” about thirty minutes after the attack, an official at the UN mission in Timbuktu told AFP.
UN calls for “immediate investigation”
UN Security Council members “strongly condemned” the attack and urged the Malian authorities to conduct an “immediate investigation,” according to a joint press release on Friday.
Mali has been plagued by jihadist attacks and violence of all kinds since 2012. Minusma is one of the main targets of jihadists, along with the Malian armed forces, who target the foreign presence and symbols of the state.
With around 12,000 soldiers stationed in Mali, it is the UN mission that has suffered the most casualties worldwide in recent years. More than 180 of its members died in hostile acts.
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