The area, neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, is the scene of clashes between jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State and Al-Qaida for the control of gold deposits.
Le Monde with AFP
At least 17 soldiers and 4 civilians were killed on Sunday, August 7, while 9 other soldiers are missing, after an attack attributed to jihadists in the city of Tessit, located in the so -called three borders between the Mali, Burkina and Niger.
The assessment is “always provisional and likely to evolve”, according to a press release from the Malian army disseminated on Monday, which says it has killed seven enemies “probably from the Islamic State to the Grand Sahara (EIGS) and benefiting from A support for drones and artillery with the use of explosives and a trapped vehicle “. “The clandestine and non -coordinated operations of overflight recorded by the Malian armed forces (FAMA), yesterday, Sunday and today, confirm the thesis that the terrorists benefited from major support and external expertise”, ‘Army Monday evening, without giving more details.
The Malian staff also reports 22 injured in the army, major material losses including three destroyed vehicles and damage to other vehicles, FAMA facilities and civilians.
Some civilians killed are local elected officials, have reported to AFP relatives of the victims on condition of anonymity. On the “enemy” side, in addition to the seven killed, the army evokes “an unknown number of deaths and wounded carried away by the attackers”. A previous army report gave 4 soldiers and 2 civilians killed, as well as 5 dead “enemy side”.
strategic zone
The Tessit sector, located on the Malian side of the three borders zone, in a huge brush rural region not controlled by the State, is frequently the scene of clashes and attacks.
Armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaida, gathered under the leadership of the support group for Islam and Muslims (Gsim, Jnim in Arabic), fight the Islamic State group in the Grand Sahara (EIGS), affiliated with The Islamic State organization (IS). The jihadists seek control of this strategic and gold area.
The Malian army, installed in a military camp alongside the locality of Tessit, has also often been taken to task in this region and in particular in Tessit. In this area sometimes called the “Malian Gourma” also operate peacekeepers from the UN mission in Mali.
As for civilians, as elsewhere in Mali, they are taken between the fires of these actors in the conflict, and accused of being allied with one or the other. Residents of the area fled by thousands, especially to the large neighboring town of Gao, some 150 km north.
French soldiers of the “Barkhane” operation also led operations there a few months ago. They are preparing to leave their last base in Mali, in Gao, to redeploy in Niger.
at the gates of Bamako
Sunday, the force “Barkhane” announced that it has neutralized a framework and several jihadist fighters, in the Telataï region, 200 km northeast of Gao, after having identified them “thanks to the cross-checking of different sources of intelligence “.
In a very degraded security context, the junta in power since August 2020 has decided to separate from the old French ally present in Mali for nine years, and to ardently relaunch cooperation with Russia.
The Tessit region, like the whole area known as three borders, is all the more landlocked during the rainy season, from July to September, where important precipitation prevents access and circulating Easily.
Mali has been immersed in turmoil since 2012. The jihadist propagation, first confined in the North, has spread in the center and the south of the country, as well as in Burkina Faso and Niger Voisins.
At least two jihadist attacks killed twelve civilians on Saturday in central Mali and five police officers on Sunday in the southwest. At the end of July, at least 11 coordinated attacks struck the Malian territory, mainly attributed to jihadists affiliated to Al-Qaida. One of them took place in Kati, at the gates of Bamako and at the heart of the Malian military apparatus.