Eight people killed in Mali after bus hits land mine, says union official

BAMAKO, June 2 - Eight people were killed and 42 were injured in Mali after a passenger bus carrying civilians hit a land mine west of the capital Bamako, a transport union official said on Tuesday.

• The explosion happened on Monday on a road where al Qaeda-linked Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) operates and follows unprecedented assaults in April by JNIM in coordination with a Tuareg-dominated rebel group.

• Eight people died and 42 were wounded after the bus hit the land mine on the road from Bamako to Kayes, Mamadou Kassambara, communications officer for the national drivers' union told Reuters on Tuesday.

• Africa Corps, a Russian paramilitary group operating in Mali, said in a social media post late on Monday that five people had been killed and more than 10 were injured in the incident. It blamed JNIM.

• Nobody has claimed responsibility for laying the land mine.

• JNIM announced a blockade on Bamako following the April attacks and has set up checkpoints on some major roads to the city.

• West Africa's Sahel region has become a global hotspot of terrorism. REUTERS