Seven UN blue helmets have been killed and three others seriously injured in a bomb blast in central Mali, the United Nations has said in a statement.
A car bomb had exploded at an Iraqi police recruiting center at Kisak, west of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people. No organization has so far claimed responsibility.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has strongly condemned the attack. “He called on the Mali authorities to make every effort to identify the perpetrators so that they can be brought to justice quickly,” said Stefan Duzaric, a spokesman for the group.
Mali, one of Africa’s largest and poorest countries, is battling Islamist insurgents, a movement that has flourished despite nine years of efforts by a French-led international force to uproot it from the region.
The UN peacekeeping mission (Minusma) has deployed 13,000 blue helmets to reduce violence in the north and central parts of the country. It has had more than 230 casualties since 2013, making it the number one death among all UN peacekeeping missions in the world.
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