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Issues about safety in Mali have deepened since former coloniser France lately introduced the withdrawal of its troops.
A automobile transporting a Pink Cross workforce got here beneath a hail of gunfire in western Mali, killing a employee and the automotive’s driver, the Malian and Dutch Pink Cross organisations have stated.
Witnesses stated the attackers have been using bikes after they shot on the automobile at about 6pm on Wednesday close to Kayes, the help organisation stated.
The automobile was clearly marked with the group’s emblem, they added. Two different workers survived the ambush.
“The Malian Pink Cross condemns with the utmost firmness this incident, which undermines the humanitarian mission aimed toward weak populations,” the help group stated in an announcement saying the deaths.
“Disbelief and unhappiness,” the Dutch Pink Cross stated on Twitter. “Two Pink Cross support staff have been killed in an armed assault in Mali. Certainly one of them was an worker of the Dutch Pink Cross. Our flag is at half-mast. Assist staff ought to by no means be the goal.”
A spokeswoman stated the Dutch Pink Cross employee was not a Dutch citizen.
“That is horrible information and it touches us deeply. To start with, our ideas exit to the relations and everybody who knew the affected support staff,” stated Marieke van Schaik, director of the Dutch Pink Cross.
There was no speedy declare of duty, although armed teams are recognized to function within the neighborhood.
For greater than a decade, lethal armed teams have been energetic in Mali and far of the nation has lengthy been thought-about off-limits to Westerners for safety causes. Whereas the Kayes area has been much less dangerous than Mali’s north, there have been rising studies of extremism spreading within the space linked to a gaggle often called Katiba Macina.
Issues about safety in Mali have solely deepened since February when former coloniser France introduced the upcoming withdrawal of its troops preventing the armed teams within the nation.
The nation’s navy continues to be being aided by a big UN peacekeeping mission that comes beneath frequent assault from armed teams.
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