REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEY YORK -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Wednesday strongly condemned a deadly attack on the peacekeeping mission in Mali.
"The secretary-general condemns in the strongest terms today's car bomb attack on a MINUSMA (UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) camp in Aguelhok, Mali, which killed four United Nations peacekeepers from Chad and injured six other UN peacekeepers," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesman.
A number of soldiers from the Malian Armed Forces were also reportedly wounded in the attack.
The UN chief extended his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and the governments and peoples of Chad and Mali, and wished a speedy and full recovery to the injured.
"This attack will not diminish the resolve of the United Nations to support the Malian people in their efforts to achieve peace and stability for all of Mali," said the statement.
"The secretary-general calls on all parties not to be deterred by spoilers who, through their criminal acts, seek to prevent the establishment of a sustainable peace in Mali."
MINUSMA said in an earlier statement that a truck loaded with bombs exploded Wednesday at the entrance to its camp in the town of Aguelhoc, which is in the Kidal region of northern Mali.
Following a military takeover in 2012, Tuareg separatists and later some other groups with al-Qaida links took over northern Mali.
France, the former colonial power, then led an intervention disrupting the separatists.