UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Mali’s foreign minister urged the United Nations on Wednesday to consider creating a rapid intervention force to fight extremist groups in the African country’s troubled north, warning that the region “once again runs the risk of becoming the destination of hordes of terrorists.”

Abdoulaye Diop spoke to the U.N. Security Council via videoconference the day after a peacekeeper with the U.N. mission in Mali was killed in a rocket attack. That follows the death of nine peacekeepers in an attack on Friday, the deadliest since the mission began last year.