Scores of people reportedly died in a jihadist attack in the Malian capital on Tuesday, again raising questions about the junta’s capacity to tackle a 12-year insurgency.
Islamic militants attacked a number of locations in Bamako, including an elite police training academy. The violence, which the al-Qaida affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed to have carried out, led to the closure of the city’s airport for the day.
The authorities said the insurrection had been quelled and acknowledged on state television that there had been fatalities but did not disclose the number.
However, a security source told Agence France-Presse on Thursday that 77 people had been killed and 255 wounded. AFP also reported that an authenticated confidential official document put the number of dead at about 100, and named 81 of the victims. The newspaper Le Soir de Bamako reported that the funerals of about 50 military police students were taking place on Thursday.
A security official who was inside the training camp at the time of the attack told the Associated Press anonymously that at least 15 suspects were arrested.
A plane used by the World Food Programme (WFP) was also damaged at the airport. Djaounsede Madjiangar, a WFP spokesperson, said the aircraft was used to “transport aid workers and provide emergency humanitarian aid in remote areas of Mali”.
“It’s not the only plane we use in Mali, but this reduces our humanitarian response capacity to give to civilians, given that we have several destination points,” he added.
The South African aviation company National Airways Corporation said the plane, which it leased to WFP, was attacked while on the ground in Bamako. All crew and staff were unharmed, Madjiangar said.
In 2012, a Touareg uprising evolved into an insurgency that Mali has failed to stem. Jihadist activity has since spread to the rest of the Sahel, prompting concerns among leaders of coastal west Africa that downstream activity from the armed groups is almost inevitable. More than 1,600 civilians were killed in the first nine months of 2023, 17% more than during the whole of the previous year, according to figures from the non-profit organisation Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (Acled).
The latest attack took place as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a confederation formed between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, announced plans to issue a new passport outside the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) zone. When introduced, the move will cement AES’s independence from the regional bloc it claims is being swayed by western interests.
Divisions in Ecowas arose partly because of a military takeover in Mali after the perceived failure of the civilian leadership to stem the insurgency, despite the presence of French troops. Another factor that has caused tensions has been Mali’s use of Russian mercenaries to help tackle the insurgency within its territory.
Mercenaries with Russia’s Wagner group have suffered a string of recent losses in the region. The most recent and perhaps heaviest took place in July when rebels ambushed a convoy of Malian armed forces and Moscow’s Africa Corps at Tinzaouaten, near the border with Algeria.
The Malian military said more than 20 rebels were killed during the clash, while JNIM claimed to have killed 50 Russians and 10 Malian soldiers, a figure that could not be independently verified.
That incident led to severance of diplomatic ties with Ukraine after Kyiv claimed to have shared intelligence with the rebels.
Source: theguardian.com
