BAMAKO (AFP) - One of Mali's top jihadist groups said on Tuesday a French hostage it had kidnapped in November 2012 was dead.

The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a splinter group of Al-Qaeda's regional branch, told AFP Gilberto Rodrigues Leal "is dead, because France is our enemy".

Yoro Abdul Salam, a spokesman for the group, gave no details on the date or circumstances of Rodrigues' death during a brief telephone exchange.

Pressed for evidence, he said that "in the name of Allah, he is dead", before hanging up.