22 UN peacekeepers hurt in Mali after convoy hit by explosive devices

Published Nov 06, 2023 • 1 minute read

A Chadian soldier with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali stands in front of a convoy outside of Gao, Mali, on Oct. 25, 2023, after withdrawing from their bases in Tessalit and Aguelok in the north. UN peacekeepers, ordered to leave Mali by the country’s leaders, have been forced to rush their withdrawal, destroy equipment left behind and risk their lives on the road out, campaigners say. Photo by MINUSMA/AFP /Getty Images

NEW YORK CITY — Twenty-two UN peacekeepers in a convoy withdrawing from a rebel stronghold in northern Mali were injured when their vehicles hit improvised explosive devices on two occasions on Saturday, the United Nations said Monday.

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There have now been six incidents since the peacekeepers left their base in Kidal on Oct. 31 for the estimated 350-km trip to Gao, injuring a total of at least 39 peacekeepers, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

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Eight peacekeepers were injured by improvised explosive devices last Wednesday and seven early Friday, he said, and at least two peacekeepers were injured in two earlier IED attacks.

Dujarric said the 22 peacekeepers injured Saturday had to be evacuated by air to receive treatment in Gao.

In June, Mali’s military junta, which overthrew the democratically elected president in 2021, ordered the nearly 15,000-strong UN peacekeeping force known as MINUSMA to leave after a decade of working on stemming a jihadi insurgency.

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The UN Security Council terminated the mission’s mandate on June 30 and the UN is in the throes of what Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls an “unprecedented” six-month exit from Mali by Dec. 31.

MINUSMA was one of the most dangerous UN peacekeeping operations in the world with more than 300 members killed since operations began in 2013.

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About 850 UN peacekeepers had been based in Kidal along with 150 other mission personnel. An employee with MINUSMA earlier told The Associated Press that the peacekeepers left Kidal in convoys after Mali’s junta refused to authorize flights to repatriate UN equipment and civilian personnel.

JNIM, an extremist group with links to al-Qaida, has claimed responsibility for the two earlier attacks. But Dujarric has said the UN doesn’t know if the IEDs that hit the convoy had been there for a long time or whether the peacekeepers were deliberately targeted.

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