The ambush targeted an army resupply mission in the Mopti region, one of the security sources said on condition of anonymity.

A separate security source said another person was missing while seven others were wounded, including one seriously, in the ambush on the route between Konna and Sevare.

Local official Allaye Barry also said two people were killed in the attack on the convoy.

Mali was plunged into conflict in 2012 when local Tuareg radicals, supported by jihadists, revolted in the north of the country.

France intervened militarily to crush the rebellion, but the jihadists scattered and regrouped, taking their campaign into central Mali in 2015 and then into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

In Mali alone, thousands of civilians and troops have died and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.