The chief of staff of Mali's interim president, Oumar Traore, and three others have been killed in an ambush, the government said on Thursday.
The ambush took place in the rural area of Nara in Mali's southwestern Koulikoro region, the statement said, without providing further detail on when the attack occurred or who was responsible for it.
One other person, a driver who was traveling with the delegation, is missing, it added.
Mali is one of several West African countries battling a violent Islamist insurgency that has spread from its arid north over the past decade.
Militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have seized swathes of territory across the region, killed thousands and displaced millions.
Frustrations against the authorities' failure to quell the violence have spurred two military takeovers in Mali since 2020.
(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Estelle Shirbon)
