UN official sees deteriorating security situation in Mali and wider region

The security situation in Mali and the wider Sahel region is deteriorating at an alarming rate, said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, on Wednesday.

Last week, 18 UN peacekeepers in Mali were injured in an attack on their camp. On Thursday, 89 Nigerien soldiers were killed during an attack against their base close to the Malian border. On Jan. 4, 14 children lost their lives in northern Burkina Faso on the border with Mali in an attack against a bus, Lacroix noted in a briefing to the Security Council.

Terrorist groups are proliferating in the Menaka and Gao regions in Mali. There has been an increase in attacks using improvised explosive devices against UN convoys, which have caused a number of injuries to peacekeepers, he said.

These incidents are happening on an almost daily basis, or at least very regularly, and protection measures taken by the peacekeeping force in Mali have allowed the number of deaths to be limited, he said. "Of course, that remains a long way to go in this area (of protection)."

Terrorism continues to feed into intercommunal violence in the center of Mali. There are now more displaced persons suffering from hunger in the Mopti region than there were in the past, said Lacroix.

(CGTN)