In one of the worst attacks on a military base in Mali, West Africa, more than 50 soldiers were killed. In Indelimane in the Ménaka area near the Niger border, 53 soldiers and a civilian died on Friday, the government said. The posted reinforcements had found ten survivors. There is also "significant material damage".
The attack was emanating from heavily armed men, said a government spokesman. Among other things, they had shot with grenades at the military base.
The situation in Indelimane is now under control, the army said on their Facebook page. The news agency AFP wants to have learned from military circles that soldiers are missing. At first, no one committed to the attack.
The Sahel state Mali has not come to rest for years. Terrorist groups with links to Al-Qaeda and the IS militia continue to trouble the West African country.
There had already been a serious attack in early October
Islamist groups took control of the north of the country in 2012. The former colonial power France intervened militarily in 2013 and pushed back the Islamists. Nevertheless, there are again and again Islamist attacks, which are now also affected by Mali's neighbors Niger and Burkina Faso. The Bundeswehr participates in Mali with about 1,000 soldiers on the UN-stabilization mission Minusma and an EU mission to train Malian security forces.
According to a representative of the Malian Ministry of Defense, 40 soldiers were killed on 30 September and 1 October in two Islamist attacks near the border with Burkina Faso in southern Mali. However, several sources refer to this victim account as understated.