The West African nation’s U.N. mission and the United Nations have collectively said ten U.N. peacekeepers from Chad were killed and at least 25 were wounded while repelling an attack by armed assailants near a village in northern Mali on Sunday.
The clash near Aguelhok occurred early on Sunday following an attack by assailants in many armed vehicles, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said in a statement
The identity of the attackers was not immediately clear but U.N. peacekeeping and French forces are stationed in northern Mali to combat well-armed jihadist groups seen as threatening security across Africa’s Sahel region.
A 2015 peace deal signed by Mali’s government and separatist groups has failed to end the violence. Islamists have also staged assaults on high-profile targets in the capital, Bamako, and in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.