BAMAKO: A spokesman for the UN mission in Mali says one peacekeeper is dead and four others have been wounded near the volatile northern town of Kidal.

Olivier Salgado said on Sunday that a UN vehicle struck a land mine earlier in the days near Aguel’hoc, killing a Chadian soldier.

The area has been the scene of earlier mine explosions, including one that killed four UN peacekeepers earlier this month.

There was no immediately claim of responsibility for Sunday’s explosion but previous mines have been blamed on Islamic extremists linked to Al Qaeda.

Northern Mali fell under control of Tuareg separatists and then Al Qaeda-linked Islamic extremists following a military coup in 2012.

A French-led intervention last year scattered the extremists, but some remain active.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2014