Sri Lankan Peacekeepers struck by IED in Mali

 

Sri Lankan peacekeepers training in convoy protection duties with WMZ551 APCs before deployment to Mali. (Pic by SLA)



Sri Lankan Peacekeepers struck by IED in Mali


By Asiri Fernando


Eight Sri Lankan Peacekeepers injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in Mail, Africa last Sunday (13 June) have been discharged from hospital, the Sri Lanka Army said yesterday (16 June).

According to the Military Spokesman Brig Nilantha Premaratne, non of the eight injured peacekeepers rushed to a hospital in Timbuktu for a medical check-up were seriously hurt and have been discharged.

The blue helmets, part of the 2nd Combat Convoy Company (CCC) deployed to the East African country were injured when a roadside IED struck their wheeled armoured personnel carrier (WMZ551) near the small town of Hombori, in the Mopti region on Sunday afternoon. 

After the injured were dispatched to the hospital the rest of the peacekeepers had repaired the damaged vehicle and continued to escort a 44 vehicle UN convoy, Brig Premaratne told Defence Asia.  

The incident, the second such IED attack on Sri Lankan Peacekeepers in Mali came as they were escorting a UN convoy, returning to the city of Gao. IEDs are a serious threat to peacekeeping in Mali and the attack last Sunday on the CCC raises the question of has Sri Lanka adequately equipped peacekeepers sent in harm's way? 

Two hundred and forty Sri Lankan Peacekeepers make up the CCC and were deployed to Mali in support of the United Nations (UN) Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). MINUSMA, is known as the " dangerous mission” peacekeeping mission. According to the UN, 231 UN personnel including peacekeepers have been killed in Mali with 358 personnel sustained serious injuries as of December 2020.

In January 2019, a similar IED blast killed two blue helmets; Captain H. W. D. Jayawickrama and Corporal Samathat Wijekumara. Both were posthumously promoted to the ranks of Major and Sergeant respectively. Several peacekeepers were also injured in the 2019 attack on another WMZ551 armoured personnel carrier (APC). The attack was claimed by Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an-Qaeda affiliated group in Mali.

The Sri Lanka Army dispatched 8 locally produced Mine Protected Vehicles to the CCC in Mail to provide the peacekeepers better mobility and survivability from IED attacks. According to the Army, the locally produced vehicles offer better IED and mine protection than the legacy WMZ551 and BTR series armoured vehicles However, this number is insufficient to replace the ageing WMZ551 APCs in the CCC fleet, leaving the blue helmets vulnerable as they contribute to the "most dangerous" peacekeeping mission to date.  


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