Bamako News

At least three peacekeepers and a Malian soldier were killed in an attack in northeast Mali, the UN`s MINUSMA mission to the country said on Friday.

That attack, which killed 20 people, caused the government to instate a state of emergency which has been in place more or less ever since.

On November 29, 2015, terrorists attacked the Radisson Blu Hotel also in the capital killing 20.

Security has gradually worsened in Mali since French forces pushed back allied Islamist and Tuareg rebel fighters in 2013 from swathes of the north they had occupied the previous year.  

The attack is just the latest to target the 12,000-strong force in the west African nation. Guinean and Chadian soldiers make the majority of those at the Kidal camp.  

The Islamists dug two holes where they put the man and the woman who lived maritally without being married

Talks gathering some 30 African states and France begin in Mali`s capital Bamako on Friday, with leaders expected to focus on Africa`s battle against jihadists and bid to improve its democratic record.

The twin attacks were among a string of disruptions to voting in northern and central Mali.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Mali`s capital Bamako on Saturday to protest against a new electoral law and alleged state censorship, an AFP journalist said.

A central Malian town was under suspected jihadist control Friday after administrative buildings were attacked and the army was driven from the area, an elected official and a security source told AFP.

Arrested on Thursday, the man is believed to have taken part in an attack on a bar in Bamako in March 2015, the sources said.

Southern Mali`s suspected jihadist leader has been arrested by special forces and transferred to the capital Bamako, security sources said Thursday.

Gunmen on Monday attacked a hotel in Mali`s capital Bamako that had been converted into a base for a European Union military training mission in the West African nation, a Defence Ministry official and a witness said.

At least four suspected jihadists and a Malian soldier were killed Friday following an attack on a UN military camp in Timbuktu in Mali`s restive north, a Malian security source said.

Country's and French forces kill 4 extremists and free 126 people to end the siege by al Qaeda-linked militants.

The siege of the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako on November 20 after gunmen took guests and staff hostage left 20 people dead.

No group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which came eight days after a siege at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako.

In addition to the five victims who were working in the hotel, a Mali police officer also died.

A police source said Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was expected to visit the site of the attack today.

The emergency was declared following a jihadist attack on a hotel in the capital Bamako that left least 27 people dead.