Eurasia Press & News
An explosion went off Sunday afternoon in the northern Malian town of Kidal near a former storage facility for the United Nations World Food Program.
No casualties were reported, and authorities said it may have been an accident.
News of the explosion, however, rattled residents a day after suicide car bombers struck the town of Timbuktu, killing two people and wounding seven others.
Hubert de Quievrecourt, a communications adviser with the French military, said The incident in Kidal on Sunday took place near the headquarters of the Tuareg rebel group the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, the name they give to their homeland.
“We think it’s an accidental explosion caused by the poor handling of an explosive device but the circumstances are not yet clear,” he told The Associated Press. “What is certain is that no one was killed or wounded.”
The force of the explosion blew apart the roof of the building where aid supplies had been stored, said Daouda Maiga, a civic leader in Kidal.
French forces along with members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in northern Mali arrived at the scene of the explosion and set up a security perimeter around it.
