Malian troops clash with rebels

Three Malian soldiers were wounded in clashes with separatist Tuareg rebels on Wednesday, the army said, the first clashes since the two sides signed a ceasefire deal in June.

The fighting took place near the western town of Lere and comes a week after President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was sworn in, highlighting simmering tensions as he seeks to secure an end cycles of uprisings by northern rebels.

Last year’s rebellion triggered a coup and was then hijacked by better-armed al-Qaeda-linked Islamists, who seized northern Mali. France sent thousands of soldiers to its former colony in January to halt the Islamists’ march southward.

A United Nations peacekeeping mission is now rolling out to ensure stability as French troops gradually withdraw.