On Friday the 3 June, during an operation of the UN Mission MINUSMA, two peacekeepers were killed and another was injured, while they were moving out of the town of Douentza, located in central Mali, in the Mopti region. As UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said, this represents the sixth attack to a mission convoy since 22 May. Soon after the event, the UN Secretary-General condemned these attacks and stated that they may represent war crimes under International Law. Moreover, the Secretary-General also urged Mali's transitional authorities to "make every effort to identify the perpetrators of this crime so that they can be brought to justice as soon as possible."
On this occasion, El-Ghassim Wane, Head of MINUSMA, expressed his opinion by stating that this last attack was probably made by extremist forces. Unfortunately, also on Wednesday for about an hour, another MINUSMA supply convoy in Kidal, northern Mali, came under direct fire from suspected terrorists; on this occasion, four peacekeepers were injured and one was killed. The head of UN Peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre Lacroix said that “these crimes are a blatant violation of international law,” and that they “shall not go unpunished.”
Overall, there has been general condemnation of these acts by the international community and specifically the UN. The Security Council also called on the government in Mali to conduct an appropriate investigation on the matter to “bring the perpetrators to justice” and to make sanctions.
To read more, visit:
- https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1119722
- https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/two-un-peacekeepers-killed-mali-friday-un-spokesman-2022-06-03/
- https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/un-news/two-un-peacekeepers-killed-mali-four-wounded
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/3/improvised-bomb-kills-two-egyptian-un-peacekeepers-in-mali
by Alexia Tenneriello
