UN: 4 peacekeepers killed in northern Mali attack

Four peacekeepers were killed and several others injured in an attack in the northern town of Aguelhok, the United Nations mission in Mali said on Friday.

The peacekeepers repulsed the attack, carried out by several “heavily armed terrorists”, the U.N. mission said in a statement, adding that a number of attackers were killed.

“A provisional toll shows four peacekeepers dead and wounded,” it noted. “Helicopters were dispatched to the scene to evacuate the wounded.”

The U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, has deployed over 13,000 troops in order to contain violence by armed groups in the north and centre of the country.

Moreover, it has recorded about 230 fatalities since 2013, which makes it the deadliest of the U.N.’s more than dozen peacekeeping missions.

Islamist militants, linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State, are active in northern Mali as they have stepped up activity in Africa’s Sahel region in recent years, displacing thousands.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

In a separate attack on a military post in central Mali on Friday, two Malian soldiers were killed and 10 wounded, the army said in a statement.