U.N. worker killed in attack on peacekeeping convoy in Mali

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Unidentified armed men attacked a convoy belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali on Friday, killing one civilian worker and wounding another, the mission said.

The convoy was travelling from the northern city of Kidal to Gao and came under fire about 100 km (62 miles) northeast of the town of Bourem, the mission said in a statement on Twitter.

Armed attacks by Islamist militants and other groups are common across vast swathes of Mali, despite a heavy presence of international troops. The U.N. mission MINUSMA has deployed about 13,000 troops to try to contain the violence.

MINUSMA has recorded more than 250 fatalities since it started in 2013, making it the most dangerous U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world.

There was no word on the nationality of the people killed and injured.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)