Three United Nations troops were wounded today when a convoy including the head of peacekeeping in Mali triggered landmines in the country's restive north, sources within the force said.
MINUSMA commander Major General Michael Lollesgaard and the mission's police chief "escaped death in the Timbuktu region when mines on the route of their convoy wounded three peacekeepers from Burkina Faso", a civilian manager in the force told AFP.
Lollesgaard, from Denmark, and police commissioner Abdounasir Awale were on a field visit when a vehicle in their convoy hit at least one mine between the towns of Dire and Ber, a separate MINUSMA source based in Timbuktu told AFP.
The source said it was "very likely" that the mines had been laid just before the convoy arrived, specifically targeting the two commanders, as security checks had been carried out along the route a few hours earlier.
An official statement from MINUSMA placed the explosion at 1:00 pm (1300 GMT), although it made no mention of Lollesgaard or Awale.
"MINUSMA strongly condemns this terrorist act which aimed to paralyse the mission's operations in this part of Mali," it said.
"Mines in Mali indiscriminately affect United Nations The attack came a day ahead of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers when member states and non-governmental organisations hold events to honour fallen troops.
With 35 peacekeepers killed in combat since MINUSMA's inception in 2013, the UN has described northern Mali as the deadliest place on Earth for its personnel.
A Bangladeshi peacekeeper was shot dead and another wounded in Mali's capital, Bamako, on Tuesday, although the circumstances remain unclear and it has not been attributed by the UN to militants.
Malian security sources first suggested that the soldiers were targeted by "unidentified armed men" but that account was thrown into doubt by an initial inspection of the UN vehicle.
"We have launched an investigation to find out what exactly happened since, on the face of it, there are no bullet holes, just traces of blood, in the vehicle," a source later clarified.
The force is regularly attacked by militants in the north, but had not been a direct target in Bamako before an assailant opened fire on a MINUSMA residence in the city's Faso Kanu neighbourhood on Wednesday last week, wounding a civilian guard.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they come at a time of strained relations between the government and MINUSMA, which has complained that its impartiality has been "regularly called into question".
