An attack on a convoy in Northern Mali left six United Nations peacekeepers dead and five others injured on Thursday. 

A statement from the U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali (MINUSA) explained that incident occurred area about 45 kilometers southwest of the city of Timbuktu. All of the UN members involved in the attack are from Burkina Faso. 

While the U.N. didn't say who was behind the attack, Taureg camp residents in the area said that they saw a jihadist flag on the attackers' vehicles, ABC News reports. The Mauritanian Al-Akhbar news agency later reported that Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility.

However, the reason for the discrepancy between the number killed and the number the group claimed to have killed was not immediately clear, according to US News.

"Those responsible for this heinous crime must be identified and brought to justice as soon as possible," said the U.N.'s Mali envoy, Mongi Hamdi.

This attack brings the body count of peacekeepers killed in Mali since their mission began in April of 2013 to 42. The peacekeepers were there to guard against militant Islamists who threatened to move on the West African nation's capital, Bamako, CNN reports.

Although a cease-fire deal was signed between the Mali government, its allies and northern separatist groups in 2014, attacks still occur.

Thousands of military personnel have been deployed in the region since the peacekeeping mission began.