(Bamako) The 10 occupants of a UN plane were injured on Monday, including one seriously, during a “landing difficile ”at Gao airport in northern Mali, the United Nations Mission in Mali said in a statement.
Posted on Aug 3 2020 at 13 h 48
France Media Agency
The aircraft, coming from Bamako, had on board “four passengers, all United Nations personnel, and seven crew members”, according to MINUSMA.
“One of our planes landed off-runway in Gao on Monday,” a MINUSMA official in Gao, the largest city in northern Mali, had previously explained to AFP. According to another source close to MINUSMA, the seven crew members are of Russian nationality.
A large part of the fuselage of the plane with the white cabin stamped with the UN logo, sank into waterlogged ground by recent rains, according to photos circulating on social networks and authenticated by AFP.
“According to an initial assessment, a member of the crew was seriously injured and 08 people slightly. The plane suffered extensive damage “and the injured” were immediately evacuated to the medical facilities of the International Forces and MINUSMA to receive adequate treatment, “the UN mission said in its statement.
“An investigation will be ordered as soon as possible to determine the cause of this incident”, she also indicated.
MINUSMA was deployed in July 2013 in Mali after the takeover of the north of this vast Sahelian country in 2012 by jihadist groups.
With approximately 13 000 0 Peacekeepers, it is one of the most important missions of the United Nations. His mandate was renewed for one year at the end of June by the UN Security Council.
MINUSMA, together with the French force in the Sahel Barkhane and that of the G5 Sahel organization (Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad), constitutes the main international anti-jihadist forces present in northern Mali.