A suicide bomb attack Wednesday on a camp housing former rebels and pro-government militia in northern Mali left 37 people dead, a UN peacekeeping source and a local official told AFP.

The camp is located in Gao, a former bastion for Malian rebels and Islamist fighters who seized control of much of the country’s vast arid north in early 2012.

The camp was set up under a 2015 peace deal signed between the government and loyalist militias following a French-led international military intervention launched in 2013 and which is still in place.

Its implementation has been piecemeal with jihadists still active across large parts of the region.

“A suicide bomber attacked a camp” housing Tuareg-led former rebels and loyalist militia, said a member of the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA, who asked not to be identified.

“The toll is 37 dead,” he said. A local official from Gao confirmed the deadly attack.

Source: AFP