At polarised UNSC meet on Iran attack, only consensus is Middle East tensions shouldn’t escalate
The Council immobilised by its divisions did not take any action and the meeting was only an occasion for venting.
In a bomb explosion in strife-torn northeastern Mali, a United Nations (UN) peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded on Sunday.
The peacekeeper was a member of United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) which was established in 2013 by Security Council resolution 2100 of 25 April 2013. The aim of establishing the mission was to support political processes in that country.
Olivier Salgado, MINUSMA spokesperson tweeted that the peacekeepers were carrying out a security patrol near the town of Aguelhok when the device detonated.
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The peacekeeping agency in Mali has lost over 200 peacekeepers since its inception in 2013. On January 11, Chadian members of MINUSMA were killed in an attack by the jihadists in Aguelhok.
Salgado said that in a separate attack on Sunday, unidentified gunmen targeted peacekeepers near the central town of Bandiagara, with no causalities.
Much of the Northern Mali region remains chronically unstable and jihadist-led violence has spread to the centre of the country. The region fell into the hands of Jihadists back in 2012 before the militants were forced out by the French-led military intervention.
MINUSMA, the UN’s third largest peacekeeping mission, has as of August 2019, 16,416 total personnel deployed including 1,750 police, 12,543 contingent troops and 491 staff deployed.
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