BBC News with John Jason.

The Malian army backed by French forces has repelled an attack by Islamist militants in the northern city of Timbuktu. French troops pushed the militants out of the city earlier this year, but sporatic fighting has continued. Tomma Fessy reports from Bamako.

What happened is that a group of Jihadists managed to infiltrate the town over night. A long fire fight lasted hours overnight between the Jihad fighters and the Malian army. It's only when the French intervenes on the ground and by the air according to the residents there that the battle was taken to an end this afternoon. A Malian officer I spoke to over the phone told me that he was able to confirm that death of at least 8 Jihad fighters. And he told me that one Malian soldier was also killed in the fierce fighting this afternoon, and four others wounded.

Nigerian troops say they've killed 14 suspected members of the Islamist rebel group Boko Haram in a raid on a building in the northern city of Kano. A military spokesman said a soldier was killed in the raid and a potential suicide bomber was arrested. From Lagos, here's Tomi Oladipo.

Residents in some parts of Kano said they heard explosions and gunfire as the soldiers fought Islamist militants on Sunday morning. A military spokesman says

security

forces found several weapons belonging to the extremists including a car loaded with explosives, possibly to be used for an Easter Sunday attack. There's been no independent confirmation of the details of this clash. In the past major Christian holidays in northern Nigeria have been blacked by bomb attacks