Mission in the Sahel: Unidentified people shoot at EU training camp in Mali

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Training of Malian soldiers by the Bundeswehr in Koulikoro (archive photo)

Photo: DPA / Bundeswehr

A site of the EU training mission in Mali (EUTM) has been shot at with hand weapons by three unidentified persons.

The attackers shot at the entrance of the training center in Koulikoro on Sunday morning, the mission said on Twitter.

The security forces returned fire and after a short time the attackers had fled.

There are no victims and no harm.

The Bundeswehr involved in the EU mission stated that it was not affected.

"All German soldiers are doing well," she said on Twitter.

Koulikoro is located northeast of the Malian capital Bamako, where the EUTM maintains a training center for the Malian armed forces.

The Bundeswehr currently provides a little more than a hundred men and women for the EU mission.

On July 7th, the German Brigadier General Jochen Deuer took control of the approximately 950 EUTM soldiers in the West African country.

The aim of the mission, which has been running since 2013, is to support the armed forces in the region with advice and training so that they can counter threats from Islamist terror groups.

The situation in Mali had become more tense over the past few months.

There were two military coups within a year, the most recent being a suicide attack on German UN soldiers.

Almost 900 German soldiers are part of the UN troop Minusma in Mali.

asa / dpa