Huge cache of explosives discovered in Mali

BAMAKO - French soldiers on patrol discovered a cache of explosives and bombs in a building owned by the World Food Program (WFP) in Mali's extreme northeastern town of Kidal, according to information obtained here on Monday.

"During the patrols, the French soldiers stumbled on the explosives and the bombs at an old building that was owned by WFP on the extreme part of the town," the authorities disclosed.

No one was injured as the explosives were destroyed and the bombs defused.

The explosives were found on the same day when the separatist Tuareg group MNLA clashed with Malian soldiers guarding the Solidarity Bank of Mali in town.

A suicide bomb attack occurred on Saturday in the northwestern town of Timbuktu, a day after unknown individuals threw grenades on Malian soldiers on guard at the same bank in Kidal.

The series of attacks put the new government to test after Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won Mali's presidential election on August 11.

Keita vowed to end tensions in the northern part of the West African country within 60 days to usher in a new era of peace.

With the support of Mali's former colonial power France and African countries, the government has gradually regained control since January over the three northern regions of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal, which were lost to rebels in the aftermath of a military coup in March 2012.