Attacks continue in Mali. Five days after the suicide attack in Kati, claimed by jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda, which killed one person, at least 15 Malian soldiers and three civilians were killed on Wednesday in three new attacks in the center and l west of the country. According to the Malian army, they were perpetrated by “terrorists” in a coordinated way.
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 of the army.
In Sokolo, in the center, the army reports six dead soldiers and twenty-five wounded, five of whom are seriously. The army claims to have killed 48 assailants and “neutralized three terrorist pick-ups 15 km from Sokolo with occupants estimated at around fifteen fighters and their equipment”is it written.
A third attack took place overnight in Mopti (center), without causing any casualties, according to the same source. The army claims, this time, to have “routed” the attackers.
Attacks are closing in on 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 the Katiba Macina, a terrorist organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda, was perpetrated in the Kati military camp. Committed with two truck bombs, it killed a Malian soldier and injured six, including a civilian.
The day before, a series of almost simultaneous raids attributed to jihadists had hit six different localities in Mali, in the regions of Koulikoro (near Bamako) as well as Ségou and Mopti (center). Armed men, also identified by the soldiers as members of the Katiba Macina, had attacked checkpoints, a gendarmerie and a military camp, in particular in the locality of Kolokani, about a hundred kilometers north of Bamako. It was the first time since 2012 that such coordinated attacks had taken place so close to the capital.
Mali, a landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, has been the repeated target of jihadist attacks that began in the North in 2012. This insecurity has fueled a political crisis that resulted in two military coups in August 2020 and in May 2021. The ruling junta has since turned away from 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 the jihadism that has spread to a large part of the country, as well as neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.