Three peacekeepers killed in northern Mali attack

Three UN peacekeepers have been killed in an attack in Kidal in the north of Mali north, the UN has told AFP news agency.

On Thursday the UN camp “came under heavy rocket/mortar fire” and “a little later a position nearby was attacked” outside their base, the UN mission Minusma said in a statement.

Minusma began work in 2013, providing security and assisting Malian troops struggling to keep the country safe.

While no-one appears to have said they are being the attack yet, the Kidal camp has been targeted constantly by jihadists, with dozens of peacekeepers killed.

Jihadists killed two peacekeepers on 23 May near Aguelhok, close to the border with Algeria, while a Liberian peacekeeper was killed earlier in May close to Timbuktu.

Both attacks were claimed by a powerful jihadist alliance, the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), a fusion of three Malian jihadist groups with previous al-Qaeda links.