Mali: PM cancels visit to central town after at least 10 killed

At least 10 people died in attacks in Mali on Monday, as the prime minister cancelled a visit to a central town after a vehicle sent to protect his team hit a landmine.
A bus travelling in the restive north was blown up by a mine on Monday, killing at least four people, police and administrative officials said.
“A bus hit a mine near Ansongo,” a small town about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Gao, the regional hub, a Malian military officer in the area said.
“At least four civilians, including a teenage girl, were killed.”
A local official, reached by AFP, added: “It was jihadists who laid the bomb in order to terrorise local people, whom they accuse of providing information to the security forces.”
The passengers were heading to a weekly fair in a location several dozen kilometres from Ansongo, the Gao region transport association said.
“There’s no safety,” said Oumar Guire, a member of the association. “There are attacks by armed robbers, or jihadists who put down mines in the road.”
Another attack in the country’s centre killed four civilians and a soldier as two trucks chartered by the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, came under assault.
“The trucks were then burnt by the jihadist attackers,” a customs official said, adding that the driver of one of the vehicles was among the casualties.