Six United Nations peacekeepers were killed and at least 30 injured in gunfire and a suicide bombing in Mali on Friday. A UN official said its camp in Kidal in the northeastern part of the country was attacked by suspected terrorists, reported Reuters. The strike comes a week after an attack killed a UN soldier in Timbuktu.

The west African region has faced two other major attacks in recent months – one in January that left 30 people dead in Burkina Faso, and another in a hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako in November that killed 20 people. Northern parts of the country were taken over by militants in 2012. The UN base is a part of efforts to maintain peace in the area, though it has not been able to stop violence there entirely.