Saturday, June 26th 2021
Injured German UN soldiers
Rescue machine on the way to Mali
An attack in Mali injures 13 people, including twelve German UN soldiers. A Luftwaffe machine is on its way to fly out the affected blue helmets.
After the attack on the German blue helmet soldiers in Mali, the first evacuation flight started. The Air Force Airbus A400M took off early Saturday morning from the Wunstorf air force base northwest of Hanover. The aircraft type can be used as a flying intensive care unit and was also used in the corona pandemic to transfer patients from Italy and France to Germany. According to information from the German press agency, the injured should be flown from the West African country to Cologne and possibly also to Stuttgart.
On Friday morning at 6:28 local time, a suicide bomber attacked a patrol of German UN soldiers with a car bomb, injuring 13 people. According to official information, there were twelve Germans and one Belgian. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said three of the Germans were seriously injured. According to the UN, the soldiers secured the convoy of a Malian battalion.
Around 900 German soldiers are currently involved in the UN Minusma mission. The upper limit is 1100 men and women from Germany. The majority of the Bundeswehr soldiers are stationed at Camp Castor on the outskirts of Gao. The mission is intended to support the peace process in Mali. Islamist terrorist groups are active in the country. Most recently there were two military coups in Mali. Putschist leader Assimi Goïta was, according to previous reports, once in Germany for military training.
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