Nine soldiers killed in central Mali attack

Nine Malian soldiers were killed and five wounded in an area regularly targeted by Jihadist groups, as the commander of France’s counter-terrorism force for the region said an operation on the Burkina Faso border was ongoing.

“A supply mission for the national armed forces fell into an ambush between Dogofri and Nampala. The initial toll is nine dead and five wounded,” Commerce Minister and government spokesman Abdel Karim Konate said in a statement. He condemned the “cowardly and barbaric act” and said, “our commitment, as well as that of our partners, is to relentlessly pursue the fight against terrorism and drug-trafficking” in Mali.