APRNEWS - Malians will head to the polls on Sunday to vote in a presidential election that observers say will test the stability of the country.

As ethnic tensions and clashes continue across the country, especially in the North, there are doubts the elections will be held in some parts, but the West African country has a long history of relatively peaceful elections.

APRNEWS - Unidentified attackers raided the headquarters of an African military taskforce in central Mali on Friday, local and U.N. sources said.

There were no immediate details on the scale or impact of the assault on the base in the town of Sevare used by the G5 Sahel – a mission created last year to root out jihadist violence in West Africa’s semi-arid Sahel region.

APRNEWS - On the second day of his visit to Mali, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday travelled to Mopti, where he visited the G5 Sahel Force Base in Sevare.

He made a strong appeal for more predictable financial support to the regional force tackling terrorist threats in the region.

REUTERS- Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced on state TV on Monday that he would run for re-election in a poll scheduled for the end of July.

AFRICANEWS- A 22-year-old man played a modern-day spider-man role when he climbed up the balustrade of a Paris storey building to rescue a baby who was clinging from the fourth floor.

The video of the man climbing swiftly up the floors till he picked the baby to safety has since gone viral on social media. He has been identified as a Malian migrant called Mamoudou Gassama.

AFP- At least 12 civilians were killed in northern Mali in an attack on a market that also involved the shooting of a Malian soldier, military sources said on Sunday.

The attack took place Saturday in the town of Boulekessi near the border with Burkina Faso.