Ten militants and nine soldiers have died in clashes between the Malian army and a Tuareg rebel alliance, the defense ministry said on Thursday, raising fears for the country's fragile peace process.

The announcement came a day after fighters from the Tuareg-led Coordination for the Movements of Azawad (CMA) ambushed military positions in the central town of Lere, near the Mauritanian border.

Militants opened fire on troops at a national guard camp in northern Mali on Wednesday, killing two soldiers and a child, security sources told AFP.

The gunmen struck at 5:00 am in the town of Goundam, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the ancient city of Timbuktu, a Malian security source said.

The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali said Tuesday an attack by loyalist fighters on rebel positions in the north threatened "months of intense negotiations" for peace.

The U.N.'s MINUSMA force head Mongi Hamdi condemned the pro-government Imghad and Allies Tuareg Self-Defense Group (GATIA) which seized key positions in the desert town of Menaka from rebels on Monday.

Ten people drowned on Sunday after their canoe capsized in Mali, a police source told Agence France Presse, the first major river accident in the impoverished west African nation in 18 months.

"Ten people drowned Sunday in the town of Tienfala, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Bamako, when their boat capsized," the source said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday recent attacks on the U.N. mission in Mali highlighted the urgent need for a political settlement with rebels in the country's north.

Seven U.N. peacekeepers were wounded Thursday in the most recent attack about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the northern city of Kidal.

Mali's Tuareg-led rebellion reaffirmed in a statement Wednesday its refusal to sign a peace deal agreed by other armed groups and the government and due to be rubber stamped on May 15.

The U.N. Security Council has urged the main Tuareg rebel alliance, known as the Coordination for the Movements of Azawad (CMA), to initial the deal along with the other parties or face sanctions.

The captain of a migrant boat that capsized in the Mediterranean's deadliest disaster in decades was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of causing the deaths of an estimated 800 people.

Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania said they believed Tunisian national Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, was responsible for steering mistakes and the reckless overcrowding which led to the horrifying shipwreck off Libya on Sunday.

Two drivers were shot dead in an attack on a peacekeeping supply convoy in northern Mali, authorities said Saturday, the second deadly assault on the United Nations in three days.

The assailants stopped the convoy some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the main city of Gao and "coldly killed two of the drivers" in the attack Friday, the U.N. Mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said in a statement.

A jihadist group led by al-Qaida-linked Mokhtar Belmokhtar has claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide attack on the United Nations in Mali, in a recording released Friday by Mauritanian news agency Alakhbar.

Two civilians were killed and nine peacekeepers from Niger wounded when a militant set off explosives as he attempted to drive into a camp used by the U.N.'s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Ansongo, in the northern region of Gao, on Wednesday.

A suicide bomber attacked a U.N. barracks in northern Mali on Wednesday, the United Nations said, killing three civilians and wounding 16 people, including several peacekeepers.

The militant was attempting to drive into a camp used by the U.N.'s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Ansongo, in the northern region of Gao, when the explosives went off.