Six election officials have been abducted near Mali's northern town of Kidal, the defense ministry said Saturday, a week before the country holds presidential elections. Unidentified armed groups kidnapped the men, all Malian nationals, late Friday, as they were distributing voter cards in the town of Tessalit, located in the Kidal region. "They set out from Kidal to distribute the cards. They are five election officials as well as the deputy mayor of Kidal," the spokesperson of the ministry of territorial affairs, Gamer Dicko, told DPA. There has been no ransom request, Dicko added. The French army and UN peacekeeping force, which are stationed in Tessalit, refused to comment.
