Death toll from car bomb attack on military base in Mali climbs

Death toll from car bomb attack on military base in Mali climbs

Ten civilians and three soldiers were killed and 88 militants “neutralised” in multiple incidents across Mali, the government said, in a wave of bloodshed it described as a resurgence of “terrorist incidents”.

Early on Saturday morning, suspected militants attacked the Sevare airport area in the central Mopti region, detonating car bombs, which killed 10 civilians and injured 61 others, the government said in a statement.

“Thanks to the legendary determina tion of our valiant Armed Forces, operating exclusively with their own resources, the attackers were routed and 28 terrorists were neutralised”, it said.

Two local elected officials and a diplomatic source referred to the site — near the town of Sevare in the Mopti region — as a camp housing Russian troops.

Mali’s junta in 2022 began working with what it calls Russian military “instructors”. Opponents say these are mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group.

“It is the Russian camp and their planes that have been targeted — the camp is near the airport”, a local elected official told AFP news agency.

The attack lasted from 5:30 am (local and GMT) to around 8:00 am, local and military officials said.

Four loud explosions were heard, followed by automatic weapons fire, witnesses said. Smoke was also seen near the airport.

The Malian military has since regained control of the area.

The local elected official said Senegalese soldiers from the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, were involved in the fighting.

MINUSMA’s camp covers four hectares (nearly 10 acres) of land next to the airport and the Malian army camp that houses the Russians.

A MINUSMA official declined to comment.

Colonel Major Abass Dembele, governor of the Mopti region, visited the site of what his office termed a “car bomb attack” targeting an air base in Sevare.

“He first visited the wounded admitted to the Somine Dolo hospital before going to the… airport area where the vehicle bomb packed with explosives exploded without reaching its target,” the statement said.

It said the governor had praised local residents who were “strongly mobilised” to donate blood to the injured.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Malian military official referred to the incident as a “terrorist” attack.

Another military official said it was a “complex attack that required a booby-trapped vehicle and guerrilla techniques”.

Mali has been battling a security crisis since extremist and separatist insurgencies broke out in the north of the country in 2012.

It has since August 2020 been ruled by a military junta, which broke a long-standing alliance with France and other Western partners in the fight against extremism and turned militarily and politically toward Russia.

Images shared on social media showed several buildings, including a petrol station, destroyed by the blast, as well as injured people being given assistance. Reuters could not independently verify the images.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The suicide bombing came days after militants linked with Al Qaeda attacked and killed the chief of staff of Mali’s junta leader.

Oumar Traore, chief of staff for Colonel Assimi Goita, the transitional president, was among several people who died in an ambush on Tuesday near the Mauritanian border, according to a document from the Malian presidency.

Traore was part of a team that was accompanying engineers to scout for sites to drill for water, who came under attack some 400 km north of the capital Bamako. The presidency said three others also died.

On Friday, Jama’at Nasr al Islam wal Muslimin [JNIM] claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had killed Traore and two members of the army, according to a statement reported by SITE, which monitors militants websites. The group also claimed to have taken two hostages.

In the same statement, JNIM claimed to have carried out a separate attack on Wednesday that killed seven soldiers in an ambush between Sokolo and Farabougou in central Mali.

It said three of its own fighters were also killed in the attack, according to the SITE report.

The Malian army has not confirmed the incident.

Surge of insurgencies

Mali has been battling a security and political crisis since militant and separatist insurgencies broke out in the north in 2012.

Militants affiliated with Al Qaeda and Daesh have since escalated their operations into central Mali and neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

Thousands of civilians, police and troops have been killed across the region, and more than two million have fled their homes.

The Sahel country has been ruled by the military since August 2020.

Source » trtworld