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.
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.