A roadside bomb in Mali has killed three UN troops, leaving four more wounded, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said in a statement.
“We will have to make every effort to identify and apprehend those responsible for these terrorist acts so that they can be brought to justice,” said MINUSMA mission head Mahamat Saleh Annadif.
“I bow before the remains of these brave blue helmets who died in the service of peace in Mali”.
The troops were on a routine patrol on Sunday morning in Aguelhok commune in the north of the country, when their convoy hit a roadside bomb.
UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called on the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Guterres also condemned what he described as a “cowardly” attack.
He asked Malian authorities to spare no effort in identifying those responsible “so that they can be brought to justice swiftly”.
The statement from his office also said that attacks targeting United Nations peacekeepers could constitute war crimes under international law.
The UN mission has some 13,000 troops drawn from several nations deployed across the vast semi-arid country.
Mali is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in 2012 and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since.
Despite the presence of thousands of French and UN troops, the conflict has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger
