Mali Suicide Attack Kills 40 Fighters

BAMAKO, , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Jan, 2017 ) - A suicide bombing Wednesday on a camp grouping former rebels and pro-government militia in troubled northern Mali left 40 people dead, UN and local sources told AFP.

The president's office ordered three days of national mourning following the attack, the worst in the country in recent years.

A member of the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA, who asked not to be identified, initially put the death toll at 37 but hospital sources later said 40 people had been killed and 60 hurt.

The camp is located in Gao, a former bastion for Malian rebels and Islamist fighters who together seized control of much of the country's vast arid north in early 2012. It was set up under a 2015 peace deal signed between the government and various militia and rebel groups following a French-led international military intervention that was launched in 2013 but which is still in place.