BAMAKO – Three UN peacekeepers in Mali have been killed by suspectedbandits while travelling on leave along the road from the capital Bamako toneighbouring Guinea, sources said.

Friday’s attack was a robbery, a Malian security source told AFP, addingthat the three victims were from Guinea, which contributes some 900soldiers to the 15,000-strong UN stabilisation mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

At around 10:00 pm Friday, the three peacekeepers, “who were going on leavein a rental vehicle, were attacked by unidentified armed men on the road toSiby”, 44 kilometres (27 miles) southwest of Bamako, MINUSMA said in astatement Saturday.

“Three of them were killed and another wounded.”

A civilian who was driving the vehicle was also wounded, according toMINUSMA, which said it was “shocked by the cowardly assassination of thethree Blue Helmets”.

According to an elected official of Siby, it was “a robbery that wentwrong”.

“They were UN peacekeepers on leave who were going to Guinea. They wererobbed by thugs who visibly panicked and shot” them, the official said oncondition of anonymity, confirming the death toll.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack on thepeacekeepers while the Security Council in a statement “called on thegovernment of Mali to swiftly investigate this attack and bring theperpetrators to justice”.

The UN mission was established in Mali after Islamist militias seized thenorth of the country in 2012. They were pushed back by French troops in2013.

A peace agreement signed in 2015 by the Bamako government and armed groupswas aimed at restoring stability. But the accord has failed to stopviolence by Islamist militants.

Since their deployment in 2013, more than 190 peacekeepers have died inMali, including nearly 120 killed by hostile action, making MINUSMA theUN’s deadliest peacekeeping operation, accounting for more than half ofblue helmets killed globally in the past five years. – APP/AFP