Two Malian soldiers were killed Wednesday in an attack on a checkpoint by unidentified gunmen near the northern city of Timbuktu, the regional government and the army said.

"We lost two soldiers this morning on the road to Taoudeni," Timbuktu governor Bakoun Kante told AFP.

"There are five wounded who are at the regional hospital in Timbuktu."

He said the lives of those injured were not in danger.

The army confirmed the news but did not attribute responsibility for the attack.

Jihadist groups known to attack local and foreign targets operate in the Timbuktu region.

But a recent UN report noted that the region had experienced "relative calm" in recent months.

The centre of the country continued to experience a high level of violence and the so-called tri-border region with Niger and Burkina Faso had seen a "significant deterioration" in security, it said.

The report noted that attacks in the Timbuktu region continue primarily in areas where the Malian state is present, but have decreased in number.

In the vast swathes of the country where extremist groups operate freely, civilians have increasingly suffered human rights violations.

Mali has since 2012 been rocked by a jihadist insurgency by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State group, plunging the country into crisis.

The violence began in the north and later spread to the centre and to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Inter-communal and criminal violence is also common.

Mali's ruling junta has turned towards Russia and away from its traditional ally France in its efforts to stem the violence.

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