The Malian army has said it inflicted heavy losses on jihadists and lost five soldiers when it repelled an attack in the west of the country.
Fighters from a group affiliated to the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM) "carried out an attack using two kamikaze vehicles and shellfire" on an army post early on Sunday, the army said in a statement published overnight.
It said it had repelled the attack in the western village of Mourdiah, about 120 miles north of the capital Bamako, "inflicting heavy losses of life and property on the terrorists".
The army said that "a large number of terrorists were neutralised (and) dozens wounded," adding that five of its own soldiers were killed and dozens also wounded.
The same day, over twenty civilians were killed in an attack in a village in the Mopti region of central Mali. Mali's insurgency took root during a 2012 Tuareg uprising that has since spread across the Sahel and to the north of West African costal countries, and the country has experienced two successful coups since 2020.