Six killed by landmine in central Mali: local officials

Bamako, Mali | AFP | Six civilians, including four women, were killed in central Mali on Wednesday when the vehicle they were in drove over a landmine, local officials said.

The road they were travelling on is regularly the scene of explosions by improvised bombs blamed on jihadists.

Last month three Mali soldiers were killed in a similar attack near the central town of Boni.

Wednesday’s landmine attack left six people injured, as well as the six dead, a local elected official told AFP.

“It was certainly a mine placed there by terrorists,” he added, in reference to jihadist fighters.

A fellow local official confirmed the toll and said that one of the victims was a baby.

Mali has been struggling to return to stability after Islamist extremists took control of the north in early 2012, prompting a military intervention by France.

The extremists were routed in the French operation in 2013 but large stretches of the landlocked African state remain out of government control.