Four Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers killed in Mali explosion

Four UN peacekeepers were killed and four others seriously wounded, all of them Bangladeshis, on Wednesday when the vehicle they were in hit a mine in central Mali.The troops were driving on a road linking the towns of Boni and Douentza in the Mopti region, where six Malian soldiers were killed in a similar incident a day earlier, reports Reuters quoting an official statement of the UN mission (MINUSMA) stationed in Mali. A press release issued by Bangladesh's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Directorate in Dhaka also identitified the deceased as Bangladesh Army's Warrant Officer Abul Kalam of Pirojpur, Lance Corporal Akhter of Mymensingh, and troopers Raihan of Pabna and Jamal of Chapainawabganj.The mission said the death toll was provisional and could rise further. Their statement also said the UN mission was reinforcing its security presence in central Mali, which has seen a surge in violence by Islamist militants, in cooperation with the country's army as well as regional and international forces. The ISPR, however, in its press release also identified the four injured soldiers as Corporal Rasel of Naogaon, troopers Akram of Rajbari, Newton of Jessore and Rashed of Kurigram.

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Also Read- IED kills 3 Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers in Mali

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"These acts demonstrate (the militants') disarray and in no way affect our determination to carry out its mandate," said Mahamat Saleh Annadif, who heads the UN mission. Earlier in September 2017, a similar IED killed three Bangladeshis on the very same UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.Part of this article was first published on banglatribune.com