At least eight Chadian peacekeepers were killed Sunday in a "complex terrorist attack" by a UN mission camp in northeastern Mali, a source close to the Minusma said, while previous reports reported at least four to six dead. "According to a new record still provisional, at least eight peacekeepers (Chadians) were killed," said this source close to the UN mission in Kidal, some 200 km south of Aguelhok camp where the attack occurred early in the morning.
More than 160 peacekeepers killed since the beginning of the operation. Deployed in 2013, after northern Mali fell to jihadists linked to al-Qaeda, the Minusma, which has about 12,500 military and police, had already lost more than 160 peacekeepers, including more than 100 in hostile acts, more than half of UN soldiers killed during this period in the world.
Terrorists "infiltrated". "There was early this morning a complex attack on the Minusma camp and one of its security posts by terrorists," said a Malian source. "The terrorists infiltrated to lead the operation," he added, without further details, but indicating that a "major security operation of the sector" was under way. In April, shooting at the Minusma camp in Aguelhok had killed two peacekeepers in Chad and injured several others.
The jihadists had taken control of northern Mali in March-April 2012, thanks to the defeat of the army against the Tuareg-dominated rebellion, first allied to these groups who then ousted it. They were largely driven out or dispersed following the launch in January 2013, at the initiative of France, of a military intervention, which is still ongoing.
However, jihadist violence not only persisted, but spread from north to central and southern Mali, then to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, often intermingling with inter-communal conflict, resulting in over 500 deaths among civilians in central Mali since the beginning of the year, according to UN counts.