A car bomb injures three soldiers on the French base of the UN army in Mali, according to a manager

Three French and Estonian soldiers were injured on Monday by the explosion of a car bomb at the entrance of an international peacekeeping base in the Malian city of Gao, said Monday the French army.

"There was an attack … at the entrance to the French side of Gao camp," AFP spokesman Colonel Frédéric Barbry told AFP. .

"There was no incursion into the base."

He stated that the wounds of the soldiers were not life threatening, but did not provide a breakdown of the casualties.

About 50 Estonian soldiers provide protection and security patrols for the Gao camp, the main base of the French operation Barkhane.

A year ago, French soldiers on patrol were targeted in Gao by a car bomb attack, which left four dead and around 20 civilians injured.

Approximately 4,000 French soldiers are deployed as part of Operation Barkhane alongside the 12,000-member UNAMS MINUSMA peacekeeping operation in Mali.

France launched an intervention to oust al-Qaeda-linked jihadists who invaded the main cities of northern Mali in Mali in 2013.