A German medevac plane will fly to Gao overnight to bring the wounded soldiers back to Germany on Saturday, said Kramp-Karrenbauer. Germany has many troops collaborating in U.N. Stabilization and European Community training missions within the West state.
Germany's defense minister said on Friday that 12 German troops and a soldier from another country were wounded following an attack on soldiers participatingin an exceedinglyinternational organisation mission in Mali. The U.N. Mission within the country, MINUSMA, had earlier said that 15 peacekeepers were wounded when a short lived operational base within the Gao region was targeted with a vehicle bomb.
German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said three of the soldiers were seriously wounded. She told reporters in Bonn, Germany that two soldiers were in a very stable condition while the third was still undergoing surgery. All of the wounded soldiers were flown by helicopter to Gao, where they were being treated at German, French and Chinese medical facilities, the minister said. "The military operations on site aren't completed yet," she said.
A German medevac plane will fly to Gao overnight to bring the wounded soldiers back to Germany on Saturday, said Kramp-Karrenbauer. Germany has many troops participating in U.N. Stabilization and Europe training missions within the West country. Mali has been trying to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012.
Islamic extremist rebels were forced from power in Mali's northern cities with the assistance of a French-led operation in 2013.
However, the insurgents quickly regrouped within the desert and started launching frequent attacks on the Malian army and its allies fighting the insurgency.
The extremists have expanded their reach well into central Mali, where their presence has inflamed tensions between ethnic groups within the area.
