BAMAKO, Mali Dec 30 — Four Malian soldiers were killed and around a dozen others were wounded when they were attacked in the west of the county, the army said today.

Mali’s Armed Forces (FAMA) said the attack occurred late Tuesday in a region of the country where jihadists have attacked soldiers in the past.

"A FAMA unit in the Nara region was the target of a sophisticated attack combining IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) and heavy weapons,” the army said in a statement.

It said the army suffered "four dead and a dozen seriously wounded,” adding it was a provisional toll, but did not say who carried out the attack.

Mali is the epicentre of a jihadist insurgency that began in the north of the country in 2012 and spread three years later to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

Thousands of people across the region have died and around two million have been displaced by the conflict.

Despite the presence of French and UN troops, the conflict spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

France intervened in 2013 and now has roughly 5,000 troops in the region, but plans to lower that number to 2,500-3,000 by 2023.

The spiral of violence has continued despite the coup that brought the military to power in Bamako in 2020. — AFP