REBEL BOMBER KILLS THREE AT MALI HQ OF ANTI-TERROR FORCE
▶ Vehicle painted in UN colours used to get close to international force’s base before explosives set off
A suicide bomber in a vehicle painted in United Nations colours attacked the Malian headquarters of an international counter-terrorism task force, killing two soldiers and a civilian.
The building’s entrance wall was destroyed, according to a security source and a local leader.
The Al Qaeda-linked Support Group for Islam and Muslims, the main militant alliance in Africa’s Sahel region, claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to the Mauritanian news agency Al Akhbar.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack, his spokesman said.
It was the first assault on the headquarters of the fivenation force set up last year with the backing of France to combat insurgents.
“Shortly after Friday prayers, a suicide bomber in a vehicle painted with UN colours blew up at the entrance to the G5 base in Sevare. It was a huge blast,” a military source in the G5 Sahel force said.
Two soldiers from the force and a civilian were killed, as well as two attackers, according to a source within the force and the governor of Mopti, the regional capital.
The Malian government confirmed the two military fatalities. “We have arrested four suspects,” Governor Sidi Alassane Tour said.
Mr Guterres, who visited the Sevare headquarters last month, highlighted security shortcomings at several of the force’s sites in Mali in a report published in May.
“Poor conditions on and around the site represent an important security threat, and are delaying the deployment of the remaining soldiers,” the report said.
Residents in Sevare, 600 kilometres north-east of the capital, Bamako, hid inside their homes during Friday’s attack, according to Bouba Bathily, a trader who sheltered from the gunfire in his house.
Fruit seller Haoussa Haidara said “there was a huge blast” followed by shooting that lasted more than an hour.
The attack came three days before a meeting in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott between French President Emmanuel Macron and the heads of the G5 Sahel states to discuss the force’s progress.
The G5 Sahel aims to have a total of 5,000 troops drawn from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, but faces funding problems. It operates alongside France’s 4,000 troops in the “tri-border” area where Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet, and with the UN’s 12,000-strong peacekeeping force in Mali.
Florence Parly, France’s Minister of Armed Forces, tweeted: “Solidarity with our African partners with whom we will continue the fight against terrorism.”
The G5 Sahel was scheduled to be fully mobilised by the middle of this year but it has faced delays, equipment worries and accusations of human-rights abuses.
On Tuesday, the UN said Malian soldiers within the force had summarily executed 12 civilians in a market in central Mali in May in retaliation for the death of a soldier.
Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga said that the government had “taken the necessary measures” after the bloodshed, which he condemned.
France intervened in Mali in 2013 to help government forces drive Al Qaeda-linked fighters out of the country’s north.
But large tracts of Mali remain lawless despite a peace accord signed with Tuareg leaders in mid-2015 aimed at isolating the militants. The violence has also spilled over into Burkina Faso and Niger.
Earlier on Friday, French military headquarters said troops from its Barkhane mission in Mali had killed or captured 15 militants on June 22 in a joint operation with local forces.
The clash occurred in a woodland area of the Inabelbel region, south-east of Timbuktu, the military said.
A group of about 20 militants were attacked using helicopters and jet fighter support after they were spotted by Malian commandos, it said.