Soldiers and Wagner mercenaries were escorting a group of mainly foreign civilians to the mine in northern Mali when they were ambushed on Friday by armed assailants, according to local officials.

The attackers struck when the convoy of several dozen vehicles was making its way through the village of Kobe in a region where Al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates are known to operate and several attacks have taken place in recent months.

"During the fighting, the terrorists deliberately targeted civilian passengers," the Malian army general staff said, adding that it would "pursue the terrorists responsible".

A local politician who spoke on condition of anonymity put the death toll at "32 civilians and soldiers".

According to the Malian Armed Forces' statement, 25 civilians were killed, and 13 others, "mostly young, foreign gold miners" were wounded.

It said the bodies of 19 attackers were also recovered from the site.

Another local official said the civilian victims were mainly foreigners travelling to a mine in Intahaka, the main gold mining region in northern Mali.

The country is one of Africa's top gold producers, though production has plunged due to instability.

Mali has seen a resurgence of violence since 2012, with a series of military coups as it struggles to stamp out insurgencies that have taken root in the north linked to Al-Qaeda, IS and local criminal gangs.

The unrest has since proliferated across the central Sahel region, with juntas also taking charge of neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Military leaders across the Sahel have pledged to claw back sovereignty over their countries' natural resources, which they say have been unfairly sold off to foreign operators.

Gold mining provides a quarter of Mali's national budget.