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Two more blue helmets die after attack on UN Mission in Mali

Xinhua, February 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Two more UN peacekeepers died from wounds sustained in Friday's attack on a UN Mission camp in Mali, bringing the number of casualties to seven, all from the Guinean contingent, a UN spokesman said here Monday.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Guinean President Alpha Conde to offer condolences, Farhan Haq, the deputy UN spokesman, said at a daily news briefing here.

Mohamed Saleh Annadif, the UN secretary-general's special representative, will fly with the remains of the deceased peacekeepers to Guinea on Wednesday, Haq said.

On Friday, the secretary-general condemned the attack and underscored that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers constitute war crimes under international law, and called for the perpetrators of the attack to be brought to justice.

Five UN peacekeepers were killed on Friday after eight mortar shells were fired at the base and there was also gunfire, said Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

The UN base is part of an attempt by the UN to end violence in Mali following a takeover of the north by rebels in 2012.

A year later, a French-led intervention force pushed the armed separatists out of key towns in the region. Endit