Attack On United Nations Base In Mali Wounds 12 German Soldiers, UN Says

The United Nations (UN) says 12 German troops and a Belgian soldier serving in the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali were wounded on Friday in an attack in the north of the country.

The UN's mission there, MINUSMA, had previously said 15 peacekeepers were injured when a temporary operational base in the Gao region was hit with a vehicle bomb, but later corrected the numbers.

Germany's Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said three soldiers were seriously wounded.

She told reporters in Bonn, Germany, that two were in a stable condition while the third was still receiving surgery.

The wounded soldiers were flown by helicopter to Gao, where they were being treated at German, French and Chinese medical facilities, the minister said.

WATCH: UK troops deploy to Mali.

The soldiers are to arrive back in Germany on Saturday, Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer added.

Germany has hundreds of troops taking part in UN stabilisation and European Union training missions in the West African nation.

Last December, British troops joined the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the 18,000-strong peacekeeping mission established in 2013.

Mali has been trying to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012.

Cover image: A German air force military transport aircraft stands at the Wunstorf airbase in Lower Saxony before taking off for Mali (Picture: Swen Pförtner/dpa/Alamy Live News).