One of Mali's top jihadist groups said on Tuesday a French hostage it had kidnapped in November 2012 was dead.

The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a splinter group of al-Qaida's regional branch, told AFP Gilberto Rodrigues Leal "is dead, because France is our enemy."

French forces have freed five Malian aid workers who were taken hostage in a February kidnapping claimed by one of the country's top jihadist groups, the presidents of France and Mali said Thursday.

"An operation by the French armed forces" freed the five workers -- four Red Cross employees and a veterinarian from another aid organization -- after "a terrorist group" kidnapped them on February 8 in Mali's restive north, the presidents said in a joint statement.

The European Union on Tuesday agreed to launch a new mission to boost police and national guard forces in Mali, its second operation in the vast African nation threatened by Islamist rebels.

The mission "is a further demonstration of the EU's commitment to supporting reform in Mali", said the 28-nation bloc's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Militants fired a rocket into the center of rebel-infested northern Mali's largest city on Monday, witnesses said, failing to cause any damage but panicking residents.

The rocket was launched from outside the regional capital of around 90,000 people, which was occupied by Islamists linked to Al-Qaida in 2012 before being captured by French and Malian forces.

Fugitive jihadist commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar is hiding in Libya, from where he plans to mastermind terrorist attacks across Africa's Sahel region, security sources told Agence France Presse on Sunday.

The elusive Islamist, who staged a deadly siege of an Algerian gas plant in January last year, was said to have been killed in northern Mali two months later, although security experts have since expressed doubts over the reports.

Mali's new Prime Minister Moussa Mara formed a government Friday, with the outgoing foreign minister becoming reconciliation minister as the deeply-divided nation recovers from months of ruinous conflict.

Former planning minister Mara, 39, was promoted to the premiership last weekend after Mali's first post-war prime minister Oumar Tatam Ly quit just six months into office.

Mali's new prime minister said on Wednesday he was forming a government which would prioritize security and reconciliation as the deeply-divided nation recovers from months of ruinous conflict.

Former planning minister Moussa Mara, 39, was promoted to the premiership on Saturday after Mali's first post-war prime minister Oumar Tatam Ly quit just six months into office.

Militants fired rockets at a school and a French army camp in the northern Malian city of Kidal on Monday, without managing to hit their targets, military sources said.

"On Monday at 7:00 am (0700 GMT), Islamists fired four rockets at Kidal. One rocket was headed to the French military camp and the fourth to a school. There are no victims," a Malian military source told AFP.

Mali's new prime minister was in talks on Sunday to appoint a government to lead the west African nation's post-war recovery after the surprise resignation of his predecessor and the entire cabinet.

Former planning minister Moussa Mara, 39, was promoted to the premiership on Saturday after Mali's first post-war prime minister Oumar Tatam Ly quit just six months into office, a statement from the presidency said.

French soldiers have killed about 40 Islamist fighters, including some senior commanders, in Mali in recent weeks, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday.

"We have conducted operations over the past weeks," Le Drian said, adding that "about 40" fighters had been killed including "Ould Hamaha, a historic leader of AQIM," or al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.