Up to 20 Malian soldiers killed in attack on military base
MALI - At least 20 Malian soldiers have been killed in an armed attack, local politicians and a military official said, in the latest bout of violence in the West African nation. Fighters attacked a military base in the northern town of Bamba early on Monday morning, according to a local government official, who called the assailants “terrorists”.
Another local official gave a similar account, explaining that the fighters arrived on motorbikes and in cars. “Investigations are still ongoing on the ground because the death toll must be higher than the 20 deaths announced,” the official told AFP news agency.
Mali has been struggling to contain an armed rebellion that first broke out in the north in 2012, and which has since spread to the centre of the country and to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of Malian soldiers and civilians have died in the conflict to date, despite the presence of thousands of French and United Nations troops in the country. It was not immediately clear who carried out Monday’s attack. A resident of Bamba, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said armed men had been riding motorbikes around nearby villages since Sunday, before gathering for the dawn attack. “We saw 23 bodies on the spot,” the
Bamba resident said, describing the aftermath of the raid, adding that fighters had destroyed the camp and stolen equipment. “No civilian was hurt, this was an operation against the camp,” the resident added. An army official stationed in northern Mali confirmed that the attack in Bamba but said there had been losses on both sides. He, however, added that the army did not have a clear idea of enemy losses because the attackers took their casualties with them when they left the area. Another military official told AFP that reinforcements had been dispatched to the area.
(Al Jazeera)