KHARTOUM, (AFP) – Four soldiers from the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region have been wounded in an ambush, a mission official said on Tuesday.

A vehicle carrying the four soldiers came under fire on Monday evening near El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur near the Chad border, UNAMID spokesman Kemal Saiki told AFP.

“They opened fire without warning. It could have been fatal,” Saiki said.

“We have no other information about the origin of the attack, or who was behind it.”

The wounded soldiers, whose identities were not disclosed, were evacuatd to to El-Fasher, capital of North Darfur where the UNAMID headquarters is based.

In July, a UNAMID convoy was ambushed in an attack that left seven peacekeepers dead and 22 wounded.

The UNAMID deployment is set to be the world’s largest peacekeeping mission but the force is currently at only 60 percent of its mandated strength, with 15,000 of the 26,000 planned troops and police on the ground in Darfur.

According to the United Nations, 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in February 2003.

Sudan puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at 10,000.