Gunmen attack Mali army base, kill at least 16 soldiers

Gunmen attacked and briefly seized a Malian army base overnight, killing at least 16 soldiers and destroying five vehicles in central Mali's Mopti region, two local councillors in the area where the attack happened said on Sunday, reports Reuters.

The base is in the village of Dioura, the mayor of the nearest town Kareri, Youssouf Coulibaly, told Reuters by telephone from inside it. Central Mali has in the past few years been overrun by jihadists with links to al Qaeda.

"I'm currently inside the base and there were many deaths here. We've counted 16 so far," he said. Army spokesman Colonel Diarran Kone confirmed the attack but gave no further details.

Violence by jihadist groups has worsened almost every year since it first exploded in Mali in 2012, when Islamists and allied Tuareg rebels took over the north and advanced towards the capital Bamako, until a French-led intervention pushed them back the following year.