The armed forces of Mali also denounced "terrorist infiltration attempts" in "the Hamadoun Bocary Barry camp" as well as an attempt at "the Air Force compound" in the city of Sevaré, central Mali.
In the last few days, the jihadists of the Sahel-based al-Qaeda nebula have stepped up the pressure on the Malian junta, with an unprecedented level of coordination of operations.
This comes at a time of deteriorating security context. The West African country has been plagued by war since 2012 and shaken by two coups d'état in two years (2020, 2021).The Group for the Support of Islam and Moslems (GSIM, JNIM in Arabic), affiliated to al-Qaeda, looks to extending its influence amid the confusion.
One of the lastest major event was the Friday attack on an army building in Kati, a garrison town 15km from Bamako and the heart of Mali's military apparatus where the president of the transitional authorities resides. One soldier was killed in the attack.
It is the first time that such a strategic and symbolic site is targetted. al-Qaeda jihadists had in recent years been targeting security posts in rural and peri-urban areas in Mali's north and centre.
STRATEGIC THREATS
It is a way to tell "(the authorities) that they can strike anywhere, as far away as possible" from their base, said a Malian observer of the security situation in Sévaré (centre).
The day before the Kati attack, six coordinated attacks were launched simultaneously in the centre and south of the country at 5am. A first. These southern regions (Sikasso, Koulikoro, Kayes), formerly spared by the foot soldiers of the jihad, are now a target.
Most of the attacks are claimed by the GSIM, created in 2017 by the merger of several factions: al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi, a pioneer of Sahelian jihad, born in Algeria in 2007), the groups Ansar Dine
...a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO in early 2012...
of Malian Iyad Ag Ghali and al-Mourabitoune of the late Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and the Katiba Macina of Amadou Koufa
...Imperator of the Macina Liberation Front, one of the local groups within Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Moslemin (JNIM), the regional umbrella affiliated with Al Qaeda in North Africa. MLF draws from the cattle-herding Fulani... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity...
tribe extant in Mali, Niger, and Nigeria, which appeared in 2015 for the purpose of jihading against the farming tribes of Dogon and Bambara. Amadou was reported killed in a French raid, but he arose from the dead sometime around January 2019, to continue jihading as usual...
15 troops, 3 civilians killed in coordinated Mali attacks: Army
[AlAhram] At least 15 soldiers and three non-combatants were killed in coordinated "terrorist" attacks in Mali, the chronically unstable country's army said Wednesday, the latest deadly violence to rock the Sahel state.
In Kalumba, near the Mauritanian border, "the corpse count on the friendly side is 12, including three civilians from a road construction company", the army said in a statement.
The army corpse count in Sokolo, in central Mali, was six with 25 others maimed, five of them seriously.
A third attack, in centrally-located Mopti ended without casualties overnight.
Over the weekend, Mali's army said it had thwarted a new attack on a military camp in the centre of the country, two days after a deadly suicide kaboom in a strategic garrison town near the capital.
The Malian army has intensified its anti-jihadist operations in recent months, relying on what it describes as Russian instructors.
Despite a deteriorating security situation, the junta turned its back on La Belle France and its international partners, instead leaning on Russia to stem the threat posed by jihadists to Mali, as well as Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
and Niger.
| Deutsche Welle adds: |
In Wednesday's coordinated attacks, three military bases were targeted, according to the army statement.
The army said in a statement that 48 militants were killed in Sonkolo.