Three United Nations soldiers were killed and five were critically injured after their convoy collided with an improvised explosive device in central Mali, according to the United Nations peacekeeping force in the West African country’s Twitter account on Tuesday.
Mali is battling an Islamic insurgency that arose following a coup in 2012 and has subsequently spread from the country’s desert north. Hundreds of people have died and millions have been displaced across the Sahel.
Some of the organizations have ties to al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Since the mission’s inception in 2013, at least 281 peacekeepers have been killed in Mali, making it the world’s worst UN peacekeeping deployment.
