UN peacekeepers ( FILE PHOTO)

Three UN peacekeepers and one Malian soldier were killed and several others were wounded on Friday in an attack by unidentified assailants in northeast Mali, the UN mission said.

The mission (MINUSMA) said the soldiers came under fire during a joint operation in Menaka, near Mali’s border with Niger where raids by jihadist groups, some linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, have spiked over last year.

“I condemn in the strongest terms this attack that has once again befallen the MINUSMA force as well as the (Malian army),” UN Mission Head, Mahamat Annadif, said in a statement.

The mission did not specify the nationalities of the soldiers.

Jihadist groups have exploited the porous borders between Mali and neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso to expand their range of operations, alarming Western powers, who fear the growing influence of militants in the region.

A 2013 French-led military intervention drove back militants, who had seized control of Mali’s desert north a year earlier, but they have regrouped and now launched regular attacks against Malian soldiers, UN peacekeepers and civilians. (Reuters/NAN)