KERENA, 11 February, 2021 (TON): U.N. spokesman said offering a provisional toll, that around 20 UN peacekeepers were wounded including several seriously injured in an attack on their base in central Mali on Wednesday.

A temporary base near Kerena, a village in the war-torn center of the Sahel state, the militants attacked at around 7 a.m.

According to Olivier Salgado, the spokesperson for the U.N.'s 13,000-strong MINUSMA mission in Mali the position was "targeted by direct and indirect fire," media reported. He did not say who was responsible for the attack.

"The MINUSMA chief firmly condemns the attack and has ordered that all measures be taken to treat the wounded," Salgado told.

In 2012, Mai had emerged to struggle with the insurgency in the north of the country that spread to the center of the country and to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Over 230 of its personnel have died since the mission began, and improvised explosive devices killed five peacekeepers last month alone.

According to an official briefed on the matter, the injured soldiers in the latest attack were from a Togolese contingent of peacekeepers.

Armed groups are active in the countries of the Sahel, an area stretching south of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and some have sworn allegiance to the terrorist organizations Daesh or al-Qaeda. German Bundeswehr soldiers are also stationed in Mali, participating in the U.N. mission to stabilize the country.

Militants belonging to the rebel groups have been regularly attacking the UN peacekeepers and Malian soldiers in the area. Deployed in 2013, the U.N. currently has over 14,000 peacekeepers in Mali.