Seven Mali soldiers killed in overnight ambush

Bamako, Jan 24 (AFP) Seven Mali soldiers were killed when they came under heavy fire in central Mali while two French troops were wounded by a roadside bomb, the two allies said Thursday. Despite French support, Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012 and has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since.

The Mali troops came under fire late Wednesday from "unidentified armed men" in Dioungani, in central Mali's volatile Mopti region near the border with Burkina Faso, Mali's army said on Twitter. A security official who declined to be named said that, in an assault lasting several hours, the attackers overwhelmed the soldiers' position before reinforcements took it back.

Local authorities and inhabitants have blamed the attack on jihadists. Mali government spokesman Yaya Sangare said in a statement on Thursday that seven died in the attack and several were injured.

The army previously said at least six had died. The French army said meanwhile that two French soldiers were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated when their fuel truck drove along a road near Timbuktu.

The army said the blast caused a fire in the driver's cabin but it was quickly put out, adding the soldiers' wounds were not life threatening. They were evacuated by helicopter and will be repatriated to France, the army added.

The attack was claimed by GSIM jihadist group linked to Al-Qaeda, according to a statement from SITE, the US watchdog for extremist groups. Despite some 4,500 French troops in the Sahel region, plus a 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Mali, the conflict has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Local Malian troops are frequently attacked. On Tuesday, two soldiers were killed in the Mopti region when their convoy hit a roadside bomb. On January 13, French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Sahel states agreed to focus their military efforts on the border region between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. AFP RAX

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(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)