Three Bangladeshi peacekeepers were injured when a motorcade of a patrol team of the Bangladesh Formed Police Unit (BANFPU-2) came under an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Mali on Sunday morning.
The armoured personnel carrier (APC), which was carrying the police members, was also damaged in the incident, read a press release issued by the Bangladesh Police headquarters on Monday evening.
Identities of the three members of BANFPU-2, MINUSMA (The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali), were not disclosed in the press statement.
The incident took place around 9:30am (local time) when the patrol team of the BANFPU-2 reached a remote desert road along the mountains of Gundam-Tongka-Niaphungke Highway, some 15km off the Gundam Super Camp in Mali's Timbuktu Region, it read.
Several IED blasts occurred in this area in the past.
The patrol team spotted a suspicious hole in the middle of the road and the IED exploded while they were crossing it tactfully, the release read.
“Due to the intelligence of the police peacekeepers and the APC’s' capability to withstand the high-level explosions, they escaped from greater danger,” it added.
