Five Malian soldiers were killed on Monday in roadside bomb attack in the volatile centre of the country, a government spokesperson said.
Malian forces were travelling in the region of Alatona in the centre of Mali Monday morning when their convoy hit the homemade bomb, destroying four vehicles.
“Reinforcements are already in place for the operation to neutralize the enemies,” the spokesperson Yaya Sangare said on Twitter.
In November 2019 Mali’s military said that 24 soldiers died in extremist attack as alarm grew about the vast Sahel region being used as a haven for fighters linked to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida.
The attack occurred while soldiers from Mali and Niger were carrying out a joint operation along their border to track extremists. Nigerien troops detained about 100 suspects, the statement said.
It did not say which extremist group was to blame.
