Dakar, Senegal – An Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack last week in Mali’s deeply troubled north that killed two United Nations peacekeepers.
Mali has been grappling with a political and security crisis since 2012 when separatist and jihadist rebellions broke out in the north, later spreading to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.
The UN peacekeeping force in Mali, called MINUSMA, said a “complex attack” involving an improvised explosive device and direct fire targeted a patrol Friday near the town of Ber, in the Timbuktu region.
The victims were from a contingent from Burkina Faso, the mission said.
The Support Group for Islam and Muslims, or GSIM according to its Arabic acronym, said it had staged the attack.
The claim was made on its propaganda site Al-Zallaqa, the SITE intelligence group said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged streamlining the decade-old peacekeeping mission in Mali, whose military leaders have clashed with the West and turned to Russia.
In a report to the United Nations Security Council, which will vote on June 29 on extending one of the UN’s most dangerous missions, Guterres called for a “reconfiguration” of the mandate of the force that was first launched in 2013.
He acknowledged “uneven” results from MINUSMA but pointed to the importance of the coming year, with Mali’s junta promising — despite deep scepticism — a return to civilian rule.
“With Mali entering a crucial period leading to the return to constitutional rule, its continued presence remains invaluable,” Guterres said, referring to MINUSMA.
The GSIM was formed by the merger of four groups: Ansar Dine, the Macina Liberation Front, Al-Mourabitoun and the Saharan branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
