At least four United Nations peacekeepers were killed and 15 wounded when their convoy hit a mine in northern Mali on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
The peacekeepers were from Chad and were returning from the embattled town of Kidal when they struck a mine about 20 miles outside the city, said Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the force, Reuters reported. Six of those hurt are seriously wounded, he said.
Salgado did not speculate on who was behind the attack, the largest in months, but the al Qaeda group operating in the country recently has taken responsibility for several recent attacks on U.N. peacekeepers, according to Reuters. Kidal is also the home of a simmering revolt by a Tuareg separatist movement.
Northern Mali fell under control of Tuareg separatists and then al Qaeda-linked Islamic extremists following a military coup in 2012, Reuters reported. U.N. troops are now trying to stabilize the north, and peace talks have begun between the Malian government and Tuaregs, who maintain a heavy presence in Kidal and have pushed back against the authority of the Bamako-based government.
"A peace process is underway, some want to compromise it, that's totally unacceptable and irresponsible," said Bert Koenders, the U.N. special envoy for Mali. He added that the secretary-general and the U.N. Security Council have been informed, according to Reuters.
The U.N. Security Council, in a press statement, "condemned in the strongest terms" the attack on the Chadian peacekeepers and reiterated its full support for the Mali mission, Reuters reported.
"These attacks will not alter the determination of the United Nations to support the Malian people in their search for peace," the spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement, according to Reuters.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki also issued a statement late Tuesday condemning the attack and supporting efforts to negotiate "a durable peace" at the talks scheduled to begin in Algeria later this week, Reuters reported. Including those who died Tuesday, 15 peacekeepers have been killed in Mali this year.
