At least 33 people have been killed and several dozen more injured when an explosives-laden vehicle targeted a camp housing armed groups in northern Mali, a local official says.
The Wednesday morning blast hit the Joint Operational Mechanism base in the city of Gao.
The base houses hundreds of fighters including members of armed groups that signed Mali's 2015 peace agreement. The camp also houses Malian soldiers.
The local official called the death toll provisional. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the press.
"I am with the injured now," Dr Sadou Maiga at Gao's hospital told the Associated Press.
"We have stopped all hospital activities to handle the many injured who are arriving. Some have died from their wounds, and others are in a very grave state. At this point, it's not the toll of dead and injured that interests me, it's saving who I can."
Northern Mali remains insecure despite a French-led military intervention launched in 2013 to drive out Islamic extremists that had taken over the area.
A new Human Rights Watch report says Mali's government is failing to protect civilians in its northern and central regions from Islamic extremists who killed dozens of people last year while pressuring families to give up their children to jihad.
The report describes how militants have occupied villages, attacked UN peacekeepers and tried to impose a strict interpretation of sharia law.
The report also denounces rising levels of banditry, a phenomenon victims say is fuelled by the slow implementation of the 2015 peace accord.
