German army helicopter crashes in Mali on UN mission

The spokesperson for the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said Wednesday that the reason for the helicopter crash also remained unknown.

Ahmad Makaila told the German news agency dpa that the “Tiger” helicopter, a German Bundeswehr machine, went down around 12:30 GMT/UTC near the town of Tabankort in the Goa region of northern Mali.

UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said that the UN had sent a medical and security team to the crash site to investigate possible causes and casualties. He added that the helicopter had been monitoring ground “confrontations,” which means the site of the accident must be secured before MINUSMA teams can access it. 

The crash appeared to be an accident and there were no signs of it having been shot down, AFP reported, citing a UN source.

The Bundeswehr did not immediately comment on the crash.

Around 875 German troops are currently stationed in the West African country. They are part of the 12,000 total UN troops that comprise the MINUSMA mission aimed at stabilizing the country.  The troops also assist an EU training mission. In January of this year, the German parliament approved an increase in the number of German troops that could be deployed to Mali, upping the number to 1,000.

Mali is considered one of the world’s most dangerous deployment regions for UN missions. The country has been fighting an Islamic insurgency since 2012. In 2013, France’s military intervened in a burgeoning civil war in its former colony, assisting government troops against a mixture of Islamist militants and Tuareg rebels that were threatening to push towards the capital from Mali’s north.

cmb/msh (dpa, AFP)

Article source: http://www.dw.com/en/german-army-helicopter-crashes-in-mali-on-un-mission/a-39847702?maca=en-rss-en-ger-1023-xml-atom