A suicide bomb attack Wednesday on a camp grouping 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.
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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.