The UN said on Twitter that an evacuation was under way after a car bomb struck a temporary base near Tarkint, in the lawless north of the country, injuring 15 peacekeepers.

In a public statement, German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said that 12 of the peacekeepers were German, and that three were seriously injured.

Two of the three were in stable condition, she said, while one has undergone surgery. All of the wounded have been evacuated by helicopter, Kramp-Karrenbauer added.

The Belgian defence ministry also said in a statement Friday that the attack had injured a Belgian soldier, who received medical attention at the site before being evacuated.

About 13,000 troops from several nations are deployed in the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping mission across the vast semi-arid country.

Mali is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in 2012 and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives.

Despite the presence of thousands of French and UN troops, the conflict has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

A security official, who declined to be identified, told AFP that the forward operating base attacked on Friday was only set up the previous day, after a land mine damaged a UN vehicle in the area.

The peacekeepers set up the temporary base in order to remove the damaged vehicle, the security official said.

On Monday, six French soldiers and four civilians were wounded when a car bomb detonated near a French armoured car in central Mali.