Two soldiers were killed and seven were injured by a roadside bomb in central Mali on Monday, the army said, in the latest deadly incident to hit the conflict-ridden West African country.

The attack follows the deaths of 13 French troops in a mid-air helicopter collision last week as they were chasing jihadists in northern Mali.

Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012, and which has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since.

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 Mali and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Mali's armed forces announced on Twitter late Monday that nine troops were injured by a homemade roadside bomb in Diougani, a village in Mopti region near the border with Burkina Faso.

Two died later of their wounds, the army said.

At least four Malian soldiers have been killed by such bombs since last month, as well as two from Burkina Faso and one from France.

More than 140 Malian troops have died since September, including 43 in a single ambush last month.

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Mali leader appeals against hostility to foreign forces
Bamako (AFP) Dec 1, 2019
Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has urged Malians not to "bite the hands" of nations giving aid, in a response to growing hostility to foreign forces helping the Sahel country battle Islamist militants. French forces have been in Mali since a 2013 campaign to drive out Islamist fighters from the country's north, but public anger over growing militant violence has recently turned on the presence of foreign troops. Keita's appeal came days after a mid-air collision between two helicopters ... read more