Pre-election clashes in the northern Malian flashpoint town of Kidal have left four people dead and many others wounded, a defense ministry statement says.

The statement also said that the central market of the town was set ablaze on Friday.

On Thursday night "armed individuals attacked people loyal to Mali in the town of Kidal, killing four, wounding many others and causing damages among the population whose houses and shops were targeted before they were looted and ransacked," the statement added.


Mali plans presidential elections later this month - a first since the last year military coup overthrew democratically elected President Amadou Toumani Toure.

The coup leaders said they mounted the rebellion in response to the government's inability to contain the Tuareg rebellion in the north of the country, which had been going on for two months.

On July 11, Malian government officials returned to the city of Kidal almost a week after the Malian army reestablished control over the strategic city.

Colonel Mamary Camara, the city’s military chief, issued a statement saying the officials, including regional governor Colonel Adama Kamissoko, returned to Kidal, which had been held by the Tuareg rebels.

The rebels had agreed to allow the army to enter the northern city in a peace deal that was signed between the government and the rebels last month.

The peace agreement -- mediated by regional African powers, the United Nations, and the European Union -- was signed on June 18 by Mali's Territorial Administration Minister Colonel Moussa Sinko Coulibaly and representatives of two Tuareg movements in Ouagadougou, the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso.

On July 6, the Malian central government lifted the nearly six-month-old state of emergency, aiming at restoring security and peace to the country ahead of the Presidential election.

The state of emergency was declared on January 12, a day after France launched a war in the West African country under the pretext of driving out militants occupying the north.

The French war in Mali, believed to have been encouraged by the African country's natural resources including gold and uranium reserves, caused a serious humanitarian crisis in the northern areas of the country and displaced thousands of people.