Afp,
Bamako
Four United Nations peacekeepers were killed Friday when suspected jihadists staged a major attack on their camp in Aguelhok, northern Mali, the UN mission said.
The peacekeepers “bravely pushed back a complex attack carried out by several heavily armed terrorists,” MINUSMA said, adding the attackers had suffered heavy losses and had abandoned “several of their dead”.
In a statement, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he “condemns in the strongest terms” the assault, commending the bravery of those who repelled the attack.
The incident left 19 wounded, the statement said, in addition to the four troops who were killed.
A source in MINUSMA said the attack occurred around 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the Algerian border, targeting a contingent of peacekeepers from Chad.
A UN source described the dawn raid as of “very large magnitude” by about 100 attackers on motorbikes and in vehicles.
“The fighting lasted three hours... mortar shells, shooting exchanges... attempted suicide car bombing,” the source said.
He added that about 20 assailants had been killed.
A Chadian military source said “two of our forces’ positions were attacked. We lost four people, including our forces’ detachment commander, and 16 were injured.”
The UN force’s statement called the attack another “attempt against the peace process” that will “in no way undermine its determination to continue the execution of its mandate”.
It thanked “international forces for their aerial support”.
The attack took to 10 the number of MINUSMA troops killed this year.
Also on Friday morning, two Malian soldiers were killed and around 10 wounded in an attack blamed on jihadists in Diafarabe in the country’s centre, Mali’s army said in a statement.
Local resident Youssouf Aya told AFP that he had seen a line of armed men on motorcycles headed toward a military post, then heard gunfire.
He said the assailants had “briefly occupied” the military post before leaving along the Niger River.
Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that first broke out in the north in 2012 before spreading to the centre and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
France, the former colonial power, intervened in Mali in 2013 to beat back the jihadists and now has some 5,100 soldiers deployed across the semi-arid Sahel region, though the mission has not been without controversy.
A UN probe published Tuesday concluded that a French air strike in central Mali killed 19 civilians on January 3.
The French defence ministry has denied the account, insisting it had identified and attacked an “armed terrorist group”.
On Friday, France’s military issued a statement on a separate incident, saying a woman died and a child was slightly wounded in a fire linked to an operation in Mali.
It said a suspected jihadist was also killed and two others captured in the operation overnight Wednesday to Thursday in an area southeast of Tessalit in the country’s north.
According to the statement, the soldiers were shot at by the suspected jihadist in a tent and returned fire.
The tent caught fire with the woman and child inside, it said. The child was evacuated to a military hospital.
Hong Kong to vet political candidates’ past to ensure loyalty to China: official
AFP, Hong Kong
Candidates for public office in Hong Kong will have their entire history vetted, its top justice official said yesterday, after China announced a radical overhaul to ensure only “patriots” run the city.
Beijing imposed sweeping changes on Hong Kong’s electoral system on Tuesday, the latest step in an ongoing crackdown on the city’s democracy movement after massive and often violent protests.
The latest amendments to the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini constitution, have ensured that a majority of lawmakers will be selected by a reliably pro-Beijing committee, and every candidate will be vetted by national security officers.
Hong Kong’s Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng told public broadcaster RTHK that the committee will consider “all the materials related to the candidates”, including anything that is “suspected to have affected their loyalty and allegiance”.
Cheng said there was no restriction on what could be reviewed.
“We can’t completely limit ourselves and say we will only review things from the last three to five years, as we have to review everything in context... Maybe something he or she mentioned 10 years ago connects with what they said yesterday.”
China’s leaders have moved decisively to tighten their control of the international finance hub, dismantling Hong Kong’s limited democratic pillars after massive protests broke out in 2019.
They imposed a national security law last year that outlawed much dissent.
Dozens of campaigners have been prosecuted or jailed since, smothering protests in a city that had enjoyed greater political freedoms than the authoritarian mainland under the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement.
Chinese authorities have trumpeted the electoral reform as the second of a “combination of punches” to quell unrest, after the sweeping national security law.
When Hong Kongers are allowed to vote in limited local elections, they tend to do so overwhelmingly for pro-democracy candidates, something that has rattled authoritarian Beijing.
Under the new measures, Hong Kong’s legislature will be expanded from 70 to 90 seats, but only 20 of them will now be directly elected, down from 35.