Militants shelled a United Nations barracks in northern Mali’s largest city on Monday, without inflicting casualties or damage.

Militants shelled a United Nations barracks in northern Mali's largest city on Monday, without inflicting casualties or damage, peacekeeping and local government sources said.

An official within the UN's MINUSMA force said "terrorists" targeting its Dutch contingent had launched at least four shells at the camp in Gao early in the morning.

"There were no casualties or damage. We have strengthened the security apparatus," he said, without elaborating.

A local elected official in Gao said the assailants were extremists who had succeeded only in creating a "large hole" near the camp.

The shelling came a day after gunmen attacked a military checkpoint in Nione, a town in the central Segou region visited by President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last week.

One Malian soldier was wounded in that attack and two were reported missing.

Mali has been plagued by unrest since the north of the vast west African state fell under the control of Tuareg rebels and extremist groups linked to Al-Qaeda terrorist group in 2012.