Thirty-one people have died, and at least ten have been injured, while some sustained serious injuries after a bus flipped over and plunged off a bridge in Mali.

The bus had been en route to neighboring Burkina Faso from the Malian town of Kenieba when it veered off a bridge crossing the Bagoe River.

Local officials said the likely cause was "the driver's failure to control the vehicle."

Elsewhere in Africa, the authorities in Chad have said the country's delayed presidential elections will take place in May.

The vote is supposed to mark the end of a political transition that began in 2021 when former President Idriss Déby died after three decades in power, and in defiance of the Constitution, his son, General Mahamat Déby, was named his successor and promised to return the country to civilian rule.