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Bamako.  — Nine United Nations peacekeepers in Mali were killed when heavily armed gunmen on motorbikes ambushed their convoy yesterday, the deadliest attack yet on UN troops in Mali, the mission said.The attack on the peacekeepers from Niger took place in the region of Gao and highlighted a sharp increase in strikes on foreign troops based in Mali to prevent the return of al Qaeda-linked Islamists who seized the desert north in 2012.

“I am horrified by this cowardly act of terrorism . . .  Once again, lives have been lost today in the name of peace in Mali,” Arnauld Akodjenou, deputy head of the UN mission known as MINUSMA, said in a statement.

UN spokesman Olivier Salgado said the attack took place between the northeastern towns of Menaka and Ansongo.

There were no reports of further UN troops being injured.

The UN mission said aircraft had been dispatched to secure the zone, which is towards Mali’s border with Niger.

A security source said the peacekeepers were attacked in a dip in the road as it crossed a dry river bed.

UN peacekeepers have deployed across Mali’s north in an effort to secure the country after the separatists and Islamists took advantage of the power vacuum created by a coup in the capital in 2012 to seize the northern regions.

The Islamists were scattered by French forces early last year, elections have been held and rebels who distanced themselves from extremist groups have begun talks with the Bamako government. — AFP.