President
Emmanuel Macron said French forces had "neutralised" several dozen jihadists in Mali on Saturday, as he visited West Africa with a pledge to give new force to the battle against Islamist militants in the region.
![Macron says French forces neutralise over 30 jihadists in Mali](http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/165758c758b091e9c86d79019c57be15d5a0e9a7.jpg)
The operation involving teams of commandos and attack helicopters in the flashpoint city of Mopti in central Mali came just weeks after 13 French soldiers were killed in a helicopter crash as they hunted jihadists in the country's north.
Despite a French troop presence and a 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Mali, the conflict that erupted in 2012 has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.