Gunmen killed nine people in two separate attacks in Mali on Monday, the day before the UN Security Council was due to discuss an all-African security force in the Sahel region.
A Togolose UN peacekeeper and a Malian soldier were killed in an early morning attack in Douentza, in the central region of Mopti, according to a statement by the UN mission in Mali, Minusma.
Another UN soldier was lightly wounded and two attackers were killed.
Later in the day six men armed with Kalashnikovs and grenades killed five Malian UN security guards, a police officer and a civilian contractor in the northern city of Timbuktu, according to a separate statement.
The contractor’s nationality was not given.
Six jihadists were killed in Timbuktu.
Reinforcements were deployed to both bases and in Timbuktu on Monday evening.