The Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility, via its Amaq news agency, for a devastating raid that killed over 50 Malian soldiers.

The IS also claimed responsibility for a blast on Saturday which led to the death of a French soldier who died after an armoured vehicle in which he was travelling in, hit an improvised explosive device (IED) near the city of Menaka, a French defence ministry statement said.

According to AFP, IS said its fighters had "detonated an explosive device on a French army convoy in the Indelimane area".

The attacks came a month after two jihadist assaults killed 40 soldiers near the border with Burkina Faso.

The attacks have spread from the arid north to its centre, an ethnically mixed and explosive region.The recent assaults are a humiliation for the so-called G5 Sahel force, a much-trumpeted initiative under which five countries created a joint 5,000-man anti-terror force, and for former colonial ruler France, which is helping to bring security to the fragile region.

Northern Mali came under the control of Al-Qaeda linked jihadists after Mali's army failed to quash a rebellion there in 2012. A French-led military campaign was launched against the jihadists, pushing them back a year later. But the jihadists have regrouped and widened their hit-and-run raids and landmine attacks to central and southern Mali.