A French legionnaire has been killed in a suicide attack in northern Mali, taking to nine the number of soldiers to have died in the west African country since 2013, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

The fatality comes just days before President Francois Hollande is due to travel to west Africa as France prepares to redeploy some of its troops from Mali to the wider, largely lawless Sahel region to combat extremist violence.

Malian government negotiators come to the table with rebel groups on Wednesday hoping to strike an elusive peace deal with the country mired in conflict a year after returning to democracy.

Riven by ethnic rivalries, a separatist rebellion and an Islamist insurgency in its vast desert north, the west African nation has struggled for stability and peace since a military coup in 2012.

Armed groups in northern Mali were on the move Friday in violation of a truce ahead of peace talks next week, the government said, amid reports of renewed fighting.

"Corroborating information details military gatherings and even advances by troops from armed groups in certain locations in the north," a government statement released by Mali's state-owned news agency said, without giving details.

Algeria has proposed a regional meeting next week to tackle conflict in Mali after talks with Burkina Faso's leader, who has been mediating in the troubled west African state.

"We offer to launch the initial phase of an inclusive inter-Malian dialogue on July 16 in Algiers, in the presence of ministers from countries in the region," Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra said late Wednesday in Ouagadoudou.

Fighting between African migrants in Morocco near the Spanish enclave of Melilla left at least 20 people injured on Sunday, local authorities said.

The unrest broke out in Gourougou forest overlooking the enclave where migrants gather waiting for a chance to sneak into Melilla as a passage to Europe.

The Security Council on Wednesday extended for another year the U.N. mission in Mali, calling on it to prioritize efforts to facilitate peace talks and expand its presence in the north.

The maximum level of peacekeepers will remain the same, at 11,200 soldiers and 1,440 police, as will the arrangement under which French soldiers in Mali can lend a hand in cases of serious and imminent danger.

A spike in violence in the northern Mali region of Kidal has forced 17,400 people from their homes, undermining limited progress in stability, the UN humanitarian operations director said Thursday.

In total, 135,000 Malians have fled to neighboring countries and 151,000 are displaced within the country, said John Ging in New York following a recent three-day visit to the country.

The U.N. peacekeeping chief Wednesday urged Bamako and armed groups in Mali's north to engage in political dialogue immediately, emphasizing that the country's "status quo" was no longer acceptable.

"The time for peace talks is now," Herve Ladsous told the U.N. Security Council, as it met to consider renewal of the mandate for the U.N. mission in Mali.

Three armed groups from northern Mali announced in Algiers on Sunday that they have agreed to begin talks with the Bamako government aimed at resolving long-standing disputes.

The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA) and the Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA) had signed the "Algiers Declaration" late Monday, demanding "inclusive" peace and political talks in their troubled country.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali has deployed 8,280 soldiers on the ground, 74 percent of the number mandated a year ago, and still lacks utility helicopters, a new report says.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali, known as MINUSMA, took over in July 2013 from African forces fighting armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda that occupied northern Mali in 2012.