France on Monday condemned an attack against an Algerian police station in the eastern city of Constantine a day earlier, an official statement said. Reports said police shot a suicide bomber and exploded his explosives belt as he approached the police post for an attack.

The UN peacekeeping operation department has expressed concerns over the MINURSO (UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) personnel expelled by Morocco, noting that such an obstruction will affect the work of the UN mission.

France is to send a contingent of counterterror forces to help the army in Niger after militants ambushed a military patrol killing 16, the defence ministry said. The decision, announced late on Saturday, was taken following a request from President Mahamadou Issoufou after Wednesday’s attack near the border with Mali.