{"id":25680,"date":"2016-05-30T02:12:27","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T02:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/mali-united-nations-peacekeepers-killed-in-attack\/"},"modified":"2016-05-30T02:12:14","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T02:12:14","slug":"mali-united-nations-peacekeepers-killed-in-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/mali-united-nations-peacekeepers-killed-in-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali: United Nations peacekeepers killed in attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Five United Nations peacekeepers have been killed and another was seriously injured in an attack in central Mali.}<\/p>\n

The soldiers – who were from Togo – were travelling in the Mopti region when their vehicle came under fire before hitting a landmine.<\/p>\n

The area is known as a stronghold for the Macina Liberation Front, a jihadist group with suspected al-Qaeda links.<\/p>\n

The UN mission was set up in 2013 to stabilise Mali following a rebellion by Islamist and Tuareg fighters.<\/p>\n

Militants have been mounting sporadic assaults on peacekeepers in northern and central regions.<\/p>\n

No group has said it carried out the latest attack.<\/p>\n

It occurred near the town of Sevare, on the International Day of UN Peacekeepers. <\/p>\n

Last year, 120 UN personnel were killed in peacekeeping operations in 16 countries.<\/p>\n

France, the former colonial power in Mali, initially intervened in January 2013 when the rebels seized the north of the country and threatened to march on the capital Bamako.<\/p>\n

In July that year, the UN force took over responsibility for security after the main northern towns had been recaptured.<\/p>\n

October 2011: Ethnic Tuaregs launch rebellion after returning with arms from Libya
\nMarch 2012: Army coup over government’s handling of rebellion; a month later Tuareg and al-Qaeda-linked fighters seize control of north<\/p>\n

January 2013: Islamist fighters capture a central town, raising fears they could reach Bamako. Mali requests French help<\/p>\n

July 2013: UN force, now totalling about 12,000, takes over responsibility for securing the north after Islamists routed from towns<\/p>\n

July 2014: France launches an operation in the Sahel to stem jihadist groups<\/p>\n

Attacks continue in northern desert area, blamed on Tuareg and Islamist groups<\/p>\n

2015: Terror attacks in the capital, Bamako, and central Mali<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Five United Nations peacekeepers have been killed and another was seriously injured in an attack in central Mali.} The soldiers – who were from Togo – were travelling in the Mopti region when their vehicle came under fire before hitting a landmine. The area is known as a stronghold for the Macina Liberation Front, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-25680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25680"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=25680"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=25680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}