Shi’ite leaders said at least 21 people died in Friday’s attack near Nigeria’s northern city of Kano.
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Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a splinter group al Mourabitoun and the Massina Liberation Front have all claimed responsibility for the attack.
A Kidal resident said about six shells were fired by attackers at dawn.
Militants used guns and rockets in the attack and four or five rockets landed inside the base, spokesperson Olivier Salgado said, The Independent.
A number of people have been wounded in the incident.
Extremists have also extended attacks farther south this year, including an assault on a Bamako restaurant/nightclub popular with foreigners in March and an attack on a luxury hotel in the capital earlier this month.
Two UN peacekeepers and a civilian contractor have been killed in a rocket attack on a UN base in northeast Mali, a week after a deadly siege at a Bamako hotel claimed by jihadists.
French news agency AFP said that Malian Islamist rebel group Ansar Dine had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mongi Hamdi, the head of the United Nations mission, condemned the attacks and offered condolences to the families of those killed.
In 2012 most of the northern Mali was taken over by Islamist fighters having links with al-Qaida terror group.
SKOPJE – Macedonia’s interior ministry says 18 police officers were injured in a clash with a group of stranded migrants on the country’s southern border with Greece.
The militants were largely ousted by a French-led military intervention early the following year, but large swathes of Mali remain lawless and prone to extremist attacks.
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Mali is now in the process of restoring democracy with the help of the United Nations and African regional bodies, including the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
