Attacks carried out by “armed terrorist groups (which) used suicide bombers” targeted Sunday morning three camps in Sévaré, Bapho and Niono, according to the army.
The Malian army announced on Sunday the death of six soldiers in three simultaneous attacks by groups “terrorists“having used”vehicles packed with explosives“, Against three military camps in central Mali, attacks claimed by a group linked to Al Qaeda.
Read alsoMali: the junta resists pressure to accelerate the return of power
These attacks have madesix deadand 20 wounded in the three camps targeted in Sévaré, Bapho and Niono byterrorist armed groups (who) used suicide bomber vehicles“said the Malian army in a press release.
They were claimed by the Katiba du Macina of the Fulani preacher Amadou Koufa, in an audio message sent to AFP. The Macina katiba is subordinate to Iyad Ag Ghaly, leader of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) or Jnim, according to its English acronym, linked to Al Qaeda.
“This Sunday morning, the mujahideen of the katiba of Macina struck three camps of the Famathe Malian armed forces, citing Ségou, Bapho and Niono, according to this audio message in the Bambara language.
Ségou, a locality in central Mali, is not one of the targeted camps cited by the Malian army, which mentioned Sévaré among the camps attacked, contrary to the authors of the claim.
“We hit these camps at the same time with an interval of five minutes. (Besides the) deaths, material damage was caused to themadded the jihadists.
Two military coups since August 2020
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.
Starting in the north of the country, the jihadist violence spread 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.
Read alsoIn the Sahel, France wants to drop the mask of the Wagner group
Mali has thus appealed massively to what it presents as “instructorscame from Russia while Westerners (Paris and Washington in particular) denounce the presence in the country of “mercenariesof the private Russian group Wagner, which the Malian colonels in power strongly deny.
Against the backdrop of a diplomatic crisis with the junta, Paris announced in February the withdrawal of its soldiers deployed in Mali, an operation to be completed this summer.
SEE ALSO – What do we know about the manipulation organized by Russian mercenaries of Wagner in Mali?