Chinese peacekeeper, 3 civilians killed in Mali

A Chinese peacekeeper serving with the UN's Mali mission and three civilians working with an explosives unit have been killed in separate attacks, the UN and China's foreign ministry said today.
The attacks yesterday come days after five UN peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in central Mali, as concern grows over the future of the world body's deadliest active mission.
"The MINUSMA camp... In Gao, was targeted with a rocket or mortar attack," a UN mission statement said.
"According to a preliminary report, a peacekeeper was killed and three peacekeepers seriously wounded, and more than a dozen MINUSMA personnel slightly injured."

A second armed attack on a UN de-mining unit killed "two security guards and an international expert", the statement said.
At least 65 peacekeepers with the mission, known by the acronym MINUSMA, have been killed while on active service, while another four have died in friendly fire incidents, UN figures show.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying confirmed a Chinese peacekeeper had died in the northern city of Gao in what she called a "terrorist attack".
"This is a grave and outrageous crime, China strongly condemns it, we call for the UN and Mali to carry out a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice," she told a press conference today in Beijing.

The UN deployed helicopters to monitor the area and a rapid reaction force was patrolling Gao, MINUSMA said in the same statement.
The UN mission chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said he was "disgusted by these vicious, cowardly and totally unacceptable attacks."
Annadif called on the Malian government to track down the attackers and bring them to justice.
"These crimes can no longer be tolerated," he added.
Mali's north has seen repeated violence since it fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels who allied with jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda in 2012.
The Islamists were largely ousted by an ongoing French-led military operation launched in January 2013, but they have since carried out sporadic attacks on security forces from desert hideouts.

Rival armed factions and smuggling networks mean the region has struggled for stability since Mali gained independence from former colonial power France in 1960.