According to the authorities, terrorists attacked three cities in the center and west of the country. The army claims to have killed 48 attackers.
Le Monde with AFP
Attacks continue in Mali. Five days after Kati’s suicide bombing, claimed by jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda, who killed one dead, at least 15 Malian soldiers and three civilians were killed Wednesday in three new attacks in the center and ‘west of the country. According to the Malian army, they were perpetrated by “terrorists” in a coordinated manner.
In Kaloumba, near the Mauritanian border, twelve people died, including “three civilians from a road construction company”, according to the statement signed by Colonel Souleymane Dembélé, Director of Information and Public Relations army.
In Sokolo, in the center, the army reported six dead soldiers and twenty-five injured, including five serious. The army claims to have killed 48 attackers and “neutralized three terrorist pick-ups 15 km from Sokolo with occupants estimated at fifteen fighters and their equipment”, it is written.
A third attack took place overnight in Mopti (center), without making a victim, according to the same source. The army claims, this time, having “rout” the attackers.
The attacks are approaching the capital
On July 22, it was the heart of the Malian military apparatus that had been targeted by the jihadists. A suicide attack claimed by Katiba Macina, a terrorist organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda, was perpetrated in the Kati military camp. Committed with two trapped trucks, she had killed a Malian soldier and made six wounded including a civilian.
The day before, a series of almost simultaneous raids attributed to jihadists had struck six different localities from Mali, in the regions of Koulikoro (close to Bamako) as well as Ségou and Mopti (center). Armed men, also identified by soldiers like members of Katiba Macina, had attacked control positions, a gendarmerie and a military camp, especially in the locality of Kolokani, a hundred kilometers north of Bamako. It was the first time since 2012 that such coordinated attacks took place so close to the capital.
Mali, a landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, is the repeated target of jihadist attacks that started in the North in 2012. This insecurity fueled a political crisis which resulted in two military coups in August 2020 and May 2021. The power junta has since diverted France and its partners, who had supported Mali in its fight against terrorism, in particular through Operation Barkhane. The authorities are now relying on Russia to try to stem jihadism which has won a large part of the country, as well as Burkina Faso and Niger Voisins.