BAMAKO — A car bomb in northern Mali has wounded 15 UN peacekeepers, the
United Nations said on Friday, in the latest attack in the war-torn Sahel
state.
اضافة اعلان
The UN said on Twitter that an evacuation was under way after a car bomb
struck a temporary base near Tarkint, in the lawless north of the country. It
didn't provide further details.
However, a member of the German parliament's defense committee, who
requested anonymity, told AFP that all the wounded were German. Twelve
were seriously injured, the MP said.
About 13,000 troops from several nations are deployed in the UN's MINUSMA
peacekeeping mission across the vast semi-arid country.
Mali is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in 2012
and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives.
Despite the presence of thousands of French and UN troops, the conflict has
engulfed the center of the country and spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and
Niger.
A security official, who declined to be identified, told AFP that the
forward operating base attacked on Friday was only set up the previous day,
after a land mine damaged a UN vehicle in the area.
The peacekeepers set up the temporary base in order to remove the damaged
vehicle, the security official said.
On Monday, six French soldiers and four civilians were wounded when a car
bomb detonated near a French armored car in central Mali.
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