New drama at Mali. The Malian army announced on Sunday the death of six soldiers in three simultaneous attacks by “terrorist” groups who used “vehicles packed with explosives” against three military camps in central Mali. The assaults were claimed by a group linked to Al-Qaeda.
These attacks also left twenty injured in the three camps targeted at Sévaré, Bapho and Niono according to the army, while the terrorist group evokes the camp of Ségou, in the center of the country, rather than that of Sévaré.
These attacks were claimed by the Katiba of Macina of the Fulani preacher Amadou Koufa, in an audio message sent to AFP. This unit is subordinate to Iyad Ag Ghaly, head of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) linked to al-Qaeda. “This Sunday morning, the mujahideen of the katiba of Macina struck three camps of the Fama (the Malian armed forces),” according to the audio message in the Bambara language.
Mali in crisis since 2012
Plunged since 2012 into a deep security crisis that the deployment of foreign forces has not been able to resolve, Mali has experienced two military coups since August 2020. The jihadist violence, which started in the north of the country, has extended towards the center and the south before the conflict became complicated with the appearance of community militias and criminal gangs.
The conflict has killed thousands of civilians and combatants, and central Mali is currently one of the main centers of the Sahelian crisis. The military in power since 2020 have moved closer to Moscow at the same time as they turned away from France, engaged militarily in the country against the jihadists since 2013.