Malian security forces have killed five militants involved in an attack at the weekend on a luxury resort popular with Western expatriates outside Mali’s capital Bamako.

An unmarried couple were stoned to death in public in northeast Mali by Islamists, the first such known occurrence since 2012, local officials told AFP on Wednesday.

A total of 5,500 Nigerians are set to be deported from Mali and Libya, over various migration offences ranging from Human trafficking, smuggling of migrants, and non possession of valid travel documents.

Mali Security Minister Salif Traore said about 20 people have been killed in inter-ethnic clashes in central Mali.

At least 17 soldiers were killed in central Mali on Tuesday in an attack on their base claimed by gunmen from the Peul ethnic group

The Super Eagles will take on the Eagles of Mali and the Luxembourg senior national team in two international friendly matches in Europe in the next FIFA window.

Nigeria’s home-based Super Eagles and 15 other countries’ teams will clash as the Championship of African Nations (CHAN) is scheduled to begin on Jan. 16 in Rwanda.

China has agreed to finance a much-needed overhaul of the Malian stretch of the key railway line between Bamako and Dakar, the Malian transport ministry said on Monday.

Investigators in Mali were on Saturday hunting at least three people suspected of links to the jihadist siege at a luxury hotel in the capital that left at least 19 people dead.

The White House condemned an attack by suspected Islamist gunmen Friday on a hotel in Mali that killed at least 27 people and vowed to stand by local authorities fighting extremist groups.