"[2][3] These attacks constitute another act of violence in the ongoing Islamic insurgency, a continuation of the Algerian Civil War that has claimed 200,000 lives.

The attack caused the third highest staff casualties in the history of the United Nations, after the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing, which targeted the UN headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, and also killed the Secretary-General's Special Representative to Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello and 21 other staff members[2] and the 2010 Haiti earthquake in which 22 UN peacekeepers have been confirmed dead as of 14 January 2010; and 150 missing.

Among the dead were 17 United Nations employees at work in their offices, including 14 Algerians and a Dane, a Filipino, and a Senegalese.

[2] CNN has confirmed that the bombers used homemade nitroglycerin bombs, which had iron nails in them to increase casualties.

[2] The United Nations Security Council held an official meeting on the same day in order to condemn the attacks.