Mali thwarts militant attack at key garrison town

Mali said it had repelled a suicide raid yesterday by Al Qaedalinked militants at a town on the fringes of the capital that houses a base used by the ruling military.

One of Africa’s most troubled states, Mali is struggling with insurgents and political turbulence, experiencing two coups within the last two years.

“Suicide” attackers aboard two explosives-laden vehicles attacked an army depot at the garrison town of Kati, 15km from Bamako, the army said in a statement. The Malian armed forces “have... contained a desperate attempt by terrorists from the Katiba Macina,” it said, referring to an affiliate of the Al Qaeda militant group.

One soldier was killed and six other people including a civilian were wounded, while seven attackers were “neutralised” and eight were detained, it said.

The attack, launched at around 5 am, was mounted against “an installation of the army department for equipment, hydrocarbons and transport,” it added.

Residents said they heard gunfire and explosions at dawn.

“We were woken up at five o’clock by firing, by explosions, we don’t know what’s going on,” said one resident said.

Another source said: “Our base is being attacked.”

Several hours later, an AFP correspondent heard detonations as special forces personnel were deployed in the area and helicopters flew over the base.

By midday, the helicopters had returned back to ground, and residents in town had resumed their usual activities.

The depot lies outside a base that is a major hub for the ruling military, which has been behind a string of coups since Mali gained independence from France in 1960.

The camp is reputedly the residence of strongman Colonel Assimi Goita, who is Mali’s transitional president, and Defence Minister Colonel Sadio Camara.

The base was the springboard for mounting a putsch led by Goita in August 2020, and afterwards was used to detain the ousted elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

After another coup the following May, the base was then used to hold Keita’s successor, Bah Ndaw, and prime minister Moctar Ouane. Keita was forced out after mounting protests at failures to stem a militant campaign that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and then spread to the country’s volatile centre, Niger and Burkina Faso.