Nineteen Malian soldiers were killed and five injured early this Sunday morning. The events occurred during a large-scale attack by suspected jihadists against a gendarme camp in the center of the country, said the Malian army. The assessment is provisional.
“The post is under #FAMa control (Editor's note: Malian Armed Forces) . The raking in progress. Malian military aircraft over area. The provisional death toll is 19, 5 injured, equipment damaged and or taken away, "FAMa said on Twitter.
The station is under #FAMa control. The raking in progress The Malian military plane over the area.
The provisional toll is 19 dead 5 injured from damaged and or carried equipment. pic.twitter.com/sgQjcajf2C
Shortly before, a Malian military source said that the "new provisional assessment" of the attack on the Sokolo camp, close to the Mauritanian border, was "at least 18 gendarmes killed".
Sokolo is located in the Niono circle, in the region of Ségou (center), where there are jihadist groups linked to the terrorist nebula Al-Qaeda. It is the last locality before the border with Mauritania.
They "left with all vehicles and weapons"
Malian officials attributed the coup to "terrorists", the term with which they refer to the jihadist groups that have been raging in Mali for eight years, despite French, UN (United Nations Organization) and African military interventions.
"The attackers were more than a hundred, said a resident of Sokolo, Baba Gakou. They arrived at 5 a.m. (Editor's note: 6 a.m. in Paris) . They cut the gendarmes' retreat. The gunfire stopped at 7 am, "he added. According to this resident, the attackers "left with all the military vehicles and weapons". Reinforcements were dispatched to Diabaly, ten kilometers away, according to a Malian military source.
"The soldiers killed are all gendarmes," also said an elected official from this locality. “The terrorists arrived on a motorcycle. They were very armed, "he added.
French reinforcements
"It's really chaos," said a local humanitarian source who was able to enter the camp after the departure of the alleged jihadists. “All the military equipment was taken away. One has the feeling that the attackers knew where they were setting foot, ”said this person.
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Central Mali, as well as neighboring Burkina and Niger, have experienced a series of deadly jihadist attacks against soldiers and civilians in recent months, without being prevented by national and foreign forces present in the region. The number of victims of violence has increased fivefold since 2016 in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, reaching around 4,000 dead in 2019, according to the UN. The conflict in the Sahel has left hundreds of thousands displaced.
VIDEO. Emmanuel Macron: "Barkhane is an essential mission for France"
The French general staff said Thursday that the anti-jihadist force in the Sahel, Barkhane, has put "out of combat" more than thirty jihadists in central Mali in the last two weeks. Five others were killed on January 19 in a drone strike not far from the Niger border. Since December, Barkhane has announced the "neutralization" of dozens of jihadists.
Faced with the jihadist spread, French President Emmanuel Macron, and his Sahel counterparts meeting at the summit on January 13, affirmed their desire to focus the military effort on the so-called three-border region (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger), including designating the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara group as the priority enemy. France announced at the beginning of January that it would send 220 soldiers to reinforce the 4,500 of Barkhane already deployed. Its chief of staff has just announced the dispatch of "additional resources" which should be detailed by the end of the month.
