French soldier dies in operation in Mali

A soldier from the French Foreign Legion died in Mali, the French presidency said on Monday. The presidency said the death of the soldier, Kevin Clement, occurred during an operation against armed groups in the country, without giving further details.

His death came three days after another soldier from the same regiment died in a military hospital near Paris after being wounded in an explosion in Mali last week. France, the former colonial power, has 5,100 troops in Mali and the wider Sahel region, but security has progressively worsened since it intervened in 2013 to stop a jihadist advance to the Malian capital, Bamako.

Thirteen soldiers died in a helicopter crash in Mali last November in France's worst single loss of troops for more than three decades.