An attack by jihadists on militants in central Mali has killed at least 16 members of the armed forces, according to medical sources and sources close to the African country’s security forces.
An earlier “provisional report” on the army said “5 dead and 8 wounded” in its ranks, during a “complicated” attack with improvised explosive devices and other means late yesterday morning, without specifying exactly where it happened.
“The new toll is 16 dead and 10 wounded, some of them very seriously,” a source close to the security forces told AFP, referring to the attack on a road between Bankas and Bandiagara in Mopti district. The same source said that the perpetrators of the attack also suffered casualties.
Another source told Reuters that at least 15 jihadists were killed when the military returned fire.
A source at a health center in Badiagara has confirmed the death toll of 16 dead and 10 wounded in the ranks of the Mali armed forces. He clarified that 16 corpses are kept in the morgue of this health structure.
It is the deadliest attack on the Mali army since Aug. 19, when a convoy moving on a road between Bonnie and Dwenja was attacked, killing 17 members of the armed forces.
On September 28, five gendarmes accompanying a mining company convoy were killed in an attack between Sebabougou and Kuala Lumpur in western Mali.
The Islamist-Muslim Support Group, believed to be linked to al-Qaeda and led by a member of the Tuareg tribe, Iyad Ag Gali, claimed responsibility for the latest attack.
The same organization also claimed responsibility for the September 20 attack on an army medical convoy in the central part of the country, which claimed the lives of four soldiers, as well as an ambush on September 12 in the same area with five soldiers dead.
A French soldier from the Barhan mission in Mali was killed in the north of the country in late September.
Since 2012, when a clash broke out between government forces on the one hand, separatist rebels and jihadists in the north on the other, Mali has entered and remains to this day an endless storm, with thousands dead, civilians and militants fighting, despite international support. community and the intervention of UN forces, other African countries, as well as France. The situation is extremely dangerous in the country, where a transitional government is in power after two consecutive coups.
The wave of violence is also hitting neighboring countries, Burkina Faso and Niger.
