According to the mission's press release, the peacekeepers were attacked while traveling on leave in a rented vehicle some 44 kilometers (27 miles) to the southwest of the country's capital Bamako at around 2200 hrs local time on Friday.

Three of them [the peacekeepers] have been killed and another one has been wounded. A civilian, who was driving the vehicle, has been injured as well," the press release added.

The UN peacekeeping mission was deployed to Mali in 2013 to help ensure security and political transition in the country that was gripped by an active armed conflict between 2012 and 2015.

While the war initially began as a confrontation between the Malian government and independence-seeking Tuareg rebels that had captured the north of the country in 2012, a number of Islamist groups soon entered the conflict as well and ousted the rebels from Mali's north that same year.

The Malian government eventually regained control over the north of the country with the help of an international coalition and signed a peace accord with the rebels in 2015, however, sporadic terrorist attacks still take place.

As of last September, MINUSMA's staff was estimated at almost 17,000, including over 13,000 military personnel and more than 1,600 civilians. 
 

Image: Representative Picture