By Ismail Auwal
Group suspected to be Islamist terrorists have killed three United Nations (UN) peacekeepers and injured six other in Central Mali on Wednesday.
The U.N in statement said that the peacekeepers convoy struck an explosive device before they were later ambushed by the yet the to be identified group.
The group attacked the convoy about 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the town of Bambara-Maoudé in the Timbuktu region.
Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State operate in the region and have made much of the West African country ungovernable.
The dead peacekeepers were from Ivory Coast, the country’s defence ministry said in a statement.
The U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, has over 13,000 troops to contain violence caused by various armed groups in the north and centre of the country.
The mission has recorded about 230 fatalities since then, making it the deadliest of the U.N.’s more than dozen peacekeeping missions.
