Dutch defence minister Jeanine Hennis does not intend to resign after the Dutch Safety Board criticised the military’s safety and medical procedures during a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali.

The NOS reported that instead she pledged that the kind of accident that killed two soldiers and seriously wounded another last year would not happen again. ‘[Resigning] doesn’t solve anything,’ she reportedly said. ‘I would rather stop this happening again.

‘Everyone in this organisation is asking themselves what they could have done to prevent this? I understand that a number of factors may have contributed to causing this terrible accident.’

The report, published on Thursday, blamed ‘serious deficiencies’ in military procedures for an accident on 6^th July 2016, when a 60mm mortar set off a grenade during a practice session.

It said procedures were not properly followed in purchasing the weapons, initially for a mission in Afghanistan in 2006, they were not kept cool enough in transportation and storage, and medical care at a local hospital was inadequate.