PERSISTENT INSURGENCE:
The bombing, which claimed the life of an Egyptian peacekeeper in the deadliest UN mission, follows an attack that killed four Canadians in April

An Egyptian UN peacekeeper was killed and four of his colleagues were seriously injured in improvised explosive attacks on their convoy in unstable northern Mali on Saturday, the UN said.

Confirming the deadly attack, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Guterres strongly condemned the killings, which took place near Tessalit, near the Algerian border.

Guterres said the attacks could constitute war crimes and called on the Malian authorities “to spare no effort” to find those responsible.

“This incident is a sad reminder of the continuing danger to our peacekeepers and of the sacrifices made for peace in Mali,” El-Ghassim Wane, who heads the UN mission in Mali, said in an earlier statement.

Already grappling with an insurgency, Mali sank into political turmoil when a military coup in August last year installed an interim civilian government only to be overthrown in a second putsch less a year later.

Deployed since 2013, the mission in Mali is the deadliest UN peace mission in the world, with 145 deaths in hostile acts recorded as of August 31, according to UN statistics.

The current force comprises more than 12,000 troops.

In April, four Chadian peacekeepers were killed in an attack on their camp in Aguelhok, also in northeastern Mali.

The latest violence comes amid uncertainty over the future of foreign military forces in the country.

Mali’s new army-dominated government took delivery of four Russian military helicopters on Saturday as it considered hiring mercenaries from a Russian private security company Wagner Group.

The firm is seen as close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Western countries accuse him of acting on behalf of Moscow.

European countries warned Bamako against any involvement in the group on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last week.

The new regime is reportedly in the process of hiring 1,000 paramilitaries from Wagner, a move viewed with great concern in particular by the former colonial power, France, which maintains a 5,000-man counterterrorism mission in Mali.

In 2013, a French military intervention made it possible to defeat an insurgency in the country, but Paris is expected to reduce the number of its troops in the Sahel to 2,500 or 3,000 by 2023.

Paris wants to reorganize its presence around a closer unit centered on targeted strikes against militia leaders and on support for local armies.

At the UN last month, Malian Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga reacted to the decision by accusing France of abandoning his country.

Bamako was justified in its desire to “seek other partners” to strengthen security, he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the remarks as “inadmissible” in the same week that another soldier died in Mali, the 52nd French soldier lost there since 2013.