TWO UN PEACEKEEPERS and a civilian contractor were killed in a rocket attack on a UN base in northeast Mali, a week after a deadly siege at a Bamako hotel claimed by jihadists.

An official from the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA), said that two Guinean peacekeepers and a contractor working for the United Nations were killed.

“Our camp in Kidal was attacked early this morning by terrorists using rockets.”

“The terrorists fired shots and then fled,” another UN source said.

MINUSMA later confirmed the death toll in a statement and said a further 20 people were injured in the pre-dawn attack, four seriously.

No group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which came eight days after a siege at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako, in which 20 people died including 14 foreigners.

Armed men held around 170 guests and staff hostage in the November 20 attack that lasted about nine hours before Malian, French and US forces stormed the hotel to free the captives, killing two assailants.

Two separate jihadist groups claimed responsibility for that assault: the Al-Murabitoun group, an Al-Qaeda affiliate led by notorious one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and the Macina Liberation Front (LWF) from central Mali.

Four days later, a UN employee was killed in an attack on a peacekeeping convoy near the historic desert town of Timbuktu.

MINUSMA chief Mongi Hamdi said in a statement the attacks “would not dent the determination of the UN to support the Malian people and the peace process, including assisting in the implementation of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali”.

- © AFP 2015

Read: Are we willing to risk Irish lives by sending troops to Mali or Lebanon?>