Two drivers were shot dead in an attack on a peacekeeping supply convoy in northern Mali, the UN mission said Saturday.

The assailants stopped the convoy some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the main city of Gao and "coldly killed two of the drivers" in the attack Friday, the UN Mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said in a statement, adding that a third person was wounded.

The killings come amid continued violent activity by jihadist groups that had previously taken control of northern Mali before being routed by a French-led international intervention that began in 2013.

Two civilians were killed and nine peacekeepers from Niger were wounded Wednesday in a strike by an Al-Qaeda-linked group on the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Ansongo, in northern Mali.

Earlier this month a civilian was killed in Gao by a rocket attack by presumed jihadists the day after two people were killed by gunmen in another strike.

Jihadists have also struck farther south, including in Mali's capital Bamako.