Two UN peacekeepers from Nigeria were killed and four others wounded in an attack Friday on a peace patrol in the town of Timbuktu in northern Mali, the United Nations said.
The UN Security Council said a member of Mali's security forces was also killed in the attack.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said one of the peacekeepers killed was a woman.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council strongly condemned the attack.
The council stressed that involvement in planning, directing, sponsoring or conducting attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes.
MINUSMA head El-Ghassim Wane tweeted that he was "deeply shocked" by the incident, while a MINUSMA official in Timbuktu told AFP the group had sent in a rapid reaction force around 30 minutes after the attack.
Timbuktu regional governor Bakoun Kante told AFP that the assailants ran into an army patrol on fleeing the scene and one soldier and one attacker were killed in an ensuing exchange of fire. Kante added the situation was now under control.
MINUSMA's future is in doubt as violence rages in the centre, north and east.
Mali's military staged a coup in August 2020, followed by a second takeover in May 2021.
