A French soldier has died after suffering injuries in Mali when his vehicle was attacked by "terrorist groups", the French President's office said in a statement on Thursday. 


The soldier, who held a sergeant's role in a parachute regiment, suffered the injuries in October in the north of Mali when a landmine blew up his vehicle, according to the statement. 


France has a large military presence in Mali, which has witnessed attacks by Islamist militants in recent years, including one earlier this month on a luxury hotel in the Mali capital of Bamako. 


Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda seized Mali's desert north in 2012 following a separatist uprising but were scattered by a French military operation the following year. 


The attack on the hotel in Bamako earlier this month came just a week after Islamic State attacks in Paris killed 130 people

Source: NNA