Eleven Malian soldiers were killed and ten wounded, most seriously, during an ambush blamed on the jihadists on Thursday (August 19th) in the center of the country, the Malian army announced.
Read also Mali: hundreds of displaced after alleged jihadist attacks
“
A convoy was ambushed today, August 19, 2021 late in the morning. A vehicle bomb first exploded, followed by intense gunfire (...). The provisional toll shows 11 dead and 10 injured, nine of which are serious,
”the army said in a statement. A Malian military official attributed the operation to "
terrorists
", a term commonly used to refer to jihadists.
The Malian units had left Boni and Hombori and the ambush took place near Douentza, a security source said. The sector where Douentza, Boni and Hombori are located, in the region of Mopti (center), is an area of sparse forests and bushes overhung by a rocky massif where jihadist elements linked to Al-Qaeda and to the Islamic State organization. Attacks against Malian forces are regular and deadly. Ten Malian soldiers were killed in February in the attack on the Boni post.
Since 2012 and the outbreak of independence and jihadist rebellions in the north, Mali has been plunged into a multifaceted turmoil that has left thousands dead, civilians and combatants, despite the support of the international community and the intervention of forces from the UN, African and French.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
