Fifteen U.N. Peacekeepers Wounded In Northern Mali Attack

The U.N. mission in Mali and the German military say 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 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 U.N. mission said in a post on Twitter that the wounded were being evacuated, without giving further details, while a spokesman for the German military said Several German soldiers were among the wounded.

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.