French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Monday declared elections in Mali a "great success" for France, which sent troops to the African nation this year to dislodge Islamist groups.

Mali voted on Sunday for a new president in the first election since a military coup in March 2012 helped plunge the country into chaos.

Mali voted on Sunday for a president expected to usher in a new dawn of peace and stability in the first election since a military coup upended one of the region's most solid democracies.

Voters had a choice of 27 candidates to lead the troubled nation from a crisis ignited by the mutiny which allowed Islamists to take control of its vast north before they were dislodged by a French-led military intervention.

All five polling officials who were abducted in northern Mali have been released, an official in the Kidal region said Sunday, adding that a Tuareg rebel has been arrested over the kidnapping.

A local official who was snatched at the same time has also been freed, the source told Agence France Presse. "All those kidnapped on Saturday have been released and are doing well," he said.

Four people have died and many others have been wounded in pre-election violence in the northern Malian flashpoint town of Kidal, where the main market was set on fire, the government said Friday.

On Thursday night "armed individuals attacked people loyal to Mali in the town of Kidal, killing four, wounding many others and causing damages among the population whose houses and shops were targeted before they were looted and ransacked," a defense ministry statement said. "On Friday the central market was set on fire."

Clashes between Tuaregs and black Africans in northern Mali's flashpoint city of Kidal left at least one dead overnight, officials said Friday, a sign of growing tension with key polls nine days away.

An official with the UN peacekeeping force in the troubled west African country said the incident was apparently caused by rumors that the army was sending more troops to Kidal ahead of the July 28 presidential poll.

Nigeria plans to withdraw some of its troops from Mali because they are needed back home, where the country is battling a deadly Islamist insurgency, officials said Thursday.

It was not clear how many troops would be pulled from the troubled west African nation, where Nigeria currently has some 1,000 troops, a Nigerian military source said.

French President Francois Hollande on Monday "formally confirmed" the death of French hostage Philippe Verdon at the hands of his al-Qaida captors in Mali.

"The death of our compatriot Mr Philippe Verdon is formally confirmed," Hollande said in a statement. "The remains will be transferred to our country as soon as possible and the autopsy will reveal the causes of his death."

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called for the results of Mali's upcoming election to be respected even if the vote is "imperfect", amid skepticism about the country's ability to stage the poll.

"The results, even if the election is imperfect, must be respected by all parties," Ban told reporters in Paris, a day after attending France's national day celebrations.

The body of a French hostage who was announced killed by his al-Qaida captors in March appears to have been found in Mali, a member of the investigating team said on Sunday.

Tests are currently being done to see if the body found in early July is that of Philippe Verdon, said the source on condition of anonymity.

A Mauritanian court on Sunday freed a Canadian jailed for attempting to join an al-Qaida training camp in neighboring Mali, a judicial source said.

Aaron Yoon was serving two years in Nouakchott after being convicted in July last year when he was 24, but his sentence was reduced in an appeal brought by the prosecution who were asking for the term to be extended to 10 years, the source said.