Bomb blast killed four Malian soldiers and injured one Saturday when as their vehicle drove by in the centre of the country, a military source told AFP.
The explosion in the Koro region, near Mali’s border with Burkina Faso, comes just days after a military putsch against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
Meanwhile, the United Nations said Friday it had gained access to Mali’s ousted president while rebel troops said they had released two other detained leaders, in developments that followed mounting international pressure on the new junta.
This was done after some Malian youths vowed to stop them at the airport.
“Last night, a team from MINUSMA #HumanRights went to #Kati in the framework of its mandate to protect human rights and was able to gain access to President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and other detainees,” the UN peacekeeping mission said.
Kati is a military base near the capital Bamako where the detainees were taken during Tuesday’s coup in the troubled West African country.
Separately, a member of the junta, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it had authoritised a “UN human rights mission” to visit all 19 prisoners in Kati, including Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse.
The source said the junta had released former economy minister Abdoulaye Daffe and Sabane Mahalmoudou, Keita’s private secretary.
“Two prisoners have been released. There are still 17 in Kati. This is the proof that we respect human rights,” the junta member said.
Rebel soldiers seized Keita and other leaders after staging a mutiny at Kati, a base about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Bamako.
They named their organisation the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, under the leadership of a colonel named Assimi Goita, and vowed to stage elections “within a reasonable time”.
