Malian authorities said on Wednesday that they have found a mass grave containing the bodies of soldiers in the southern garrison town of Kati.

Senior military and judicial officials said that they discovered the grave that had been known for a long time, but there were more bodies than previously thought.

The judicial source said the site, a short drive north of the capital Bamako, contained 21 bodies.

The discovery came days after the detention for complicity in kidnapping of former junta chief Amadou Sanogo, a general who led the March 2012 coup that plunged the country into chaos. .

The judicial source said at the time of Sanogo’s detention he had also been questioned over a failed counter-coup shortly after he seized power which caused more tensions between warring factions of the army.

It was not immediately clear if the soldiers in the mass grave had met their fate at that time.

Mali’s newly elected President Ibrahim Keita is still battling to assert state control over the army, accused by human rights groups of excessive violence, torture and enforced disappearances.