Mali roadside bomb kills two blue helmets

Two United Nations peacekeepers were killed and four injured in northern Mali on Monday by a highway bomb, the UN mission said on Twitter.

"Two MINUSMA #peacekeepers were killed today, 17 October, when their vehicle hit an Improvised Explosive Device during a #mine search and detection patrol in #Tessalit, Kidal region", MINUSMA wrote in the post. It added that four others were "seriously injured".

MINUSMA -- the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali -- said that since the beginning of its mission in 2013, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have claimed the lives of 74 peacekeepers.

Mali has long struggled with a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. Mines and IEDs are among the jihadists' weapons of choice. They can explode on impact or be detonated remotely. 

A report by MINUSMA found that IEDs and mines killed 103 people and injured 297 in Mali last year.

With 13,000 members, MINUSMA is one of the UN’s biggest peacekeeping operations, and also one of its most dangerous. The UN has reported that 174 troops have died from hostile acts, according to AFP news agency.

Since 2012 Mali has been racked by rebel groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, and central regions of the country have become a hotbed of violence and rebel activity that has spread from the north, and on to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of civilians and combatants have died and hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the fighting.

Mali’s ruling military government recently turned away from its traditional military ally France and towards Russia in its efforts to stem the armed unrest.