BAMAKO (Reuters) -Fifteen U.N. peacekeepers, including several from Germany, were wounded in northern Mali on Friday in an attack on their camp involving a vehicle-borne explosive, the U.N. mission in Mali and the German military said.
The attack targeted a temporary base set up by the peacekeepers near the village of Ichagara in northern Gao region, where Islamist insurgents linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State are active.
The wounded were being evacuated, the U.N. mission said in a post on Twitter without giving further details.
Several German soldiers were among the wounded, a spokesman for the German military said.
The U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, has deployed over 13,000 soldiers to contain violence by armed groups in the north and centre of the West African nation.
It has recorded about 230 fatalities since 2013, making it the deadliest of the U.N.’s more than one dozen peacekeeping missions.
(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo in BamakoAdditional reporting by Sabine Siebold in BerlinWriting by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Jon Boyle)
