Red Cross says two employees killed in Mali terrorist attack

Two Red Cross employees were killed Wednesday after their vehicle was attacked in the Kayes region in western Mali, the Malian Red Cross said in a statement.

A driver and a worker from the Netherlands Red Cross died after armed men attacked their vehicle, which carried the Malian Red Cross emblem, the statement said, citing eyewitnesses. “The Malian Red Cross condemns in the strongest terms this incident, which undermines the humanitarian mission to vulnerable populations,” it said.

Witnesses said armed men on motorcycles opened fire on the vehicle. Two other Red Cross employees were also inside. Nouhoum Maiga, secretary general of the Malian Red Cross, told AFP the men were likely robbers rather than jihadists. “It is not the Red Cross as such that was targeted,” he said, adding that the organisation has previously experienced robberies and carjackings, but no recent killings.

He said the attackers took the vehicle and equipment, before later abandoning the vehicle. Mali has since 2012 been wracked by a jihadist insurgency by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State group.

Vast swathes of the country are in thrall to myriad rebel groups and militias. The country also suffers from high crime rates.

The Kayes region, which borders Senegal, is seen as less violent than the country’s centre, north or so-called three-border zone with Burkina Faso and Niger.

Source: Daily Times