Three UN troops killed in northern Mali mine blast

Three UN troops were killed and four wounded when their convoy hit a roadside bomb early Sunday, officials said, in the latest violence to hit the war-torn West African state.

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called on the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

Chadian peacekeepers were on a routine patrol in Aguelhok commune in the north of the country, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), said in a statement.

MINUSMA was established by United Nations Security Council in 2013 to support political processes in Mali and carry out a number of security-related tasks.

"We will have to make every effort to identify and apprehend those responsible for these terrorist acts so that they can be brought to justice," said MINUSMA mission head Mahamat Saleh Annadif."I bow before the remains of these brave blue helmets who died in the service of peace in Mali."Guterres also condemned what he described as a "cowardly" attack.He called on the authorities in Mali to spare no effort to identify those responsible so that they could be brought to justice swiftly.The statement from his office also said that attacks targeting UN peacekeepers could constitute war crimes under international law.The UN mission has some 13,000 troops drawn from several nations deployed across the vast semi-arid country.Mali is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in 2012 and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since.Despite the presence of thousands of French and UN troops, the conflict has engulfed the center of the country and spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.Laying roadside bombs is a favored tactic of jihadists active in the Sahel.Also known as improvised explosive devices, they kill and maim scores of victims every year in Mali.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)