The world’s deadliest peacekeeping mission has recorded a twofold increase in fatalities among its troops from improvised explosive devices this year, reinforcing what analysts say: more sophisticated attacks are being carried out by jihadists in Mali and elsewhere in the Sahel region of West Africa.
Half of the 28 uniformed peacekeepers deaths recorded this year by Minusma, the United Nations peace operation, came from IED attacks, according to internal data shared with PassBlue by the mission. Of the 21 peacekeepers who died from assaults, or “hostile acts,” this year (so far), all of them have been African, according to the mission. Africans make up most of the peacekeepers in Minusma.
Jihadists’ greater use of IEDs, as the homemade bombs are known, is occurring as the French military reduces its presence in the Sahel region, and as Mali itself, having undergone two coups in the last year, may be turning to Russian mercenaries for security help, possibly destabilizing the area further, Western nations and the UN say.
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Source: PassBlue
