French soldier dies from injuries suffered in Mali

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. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by James Regan)