DAKAR/BAMAKO, May 7 (Reuters) – Al Qaeda-linked insurgents attacked two villages in central Mali on Wednesday night, killing around 50 people, including members of pro-government self-defence forces and civilians, three sources told Reuters on Thursday.
They are the deadliest known attacks since the al Qaeda-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) teamed up with the Tuareg-dominated rebel group Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) for a coordinated assault across the West African country in late April. Sporadic fighting has persisted since.
The assailants hit two localities in Mopti region, said the three sources – an aid worker, a diplomat and a security source.
A resident of Bankass, near the targeted localities, also confirmed attacks had taken place on Wednesday night but could not provide a death toll or the identity of the perpetrators.
“Unidentified armed men burst in, opening fire and ransacking the village,” the person said.
It was not clear how many of the people killed were civilians. Local self-defence groups and hunters, often allied with the Mali military, frequently protect villages against militant attacks in that region.
A spokesperson for Mali’s army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attacks.
MALI ARMY SAYS ‘THREAT IS STILL PRESENT’
The attacks on April 25 showed how fighters from different groups with different goals could strike at the heart of the West African country’s military government.
During a press conference in Bamako on Wednesday, Malian army commander Djibrilla Maiga said insurgents were attempting to reorganize after the strikes, which killed the defence minister and drove Russian troops aligned with Mali’s leaders from the strategic northern town of Kidal.
“The threat is still present,” Maiga said, though he added that the military was disrupting their manoeuvres.
JNIM last week announced it would attempt to impose a blockade on the capital Bamako by setting up checkpoints on the roads leading there.
Maiga said the insurgents were focusing on the roads leading to Kayes and Kita, disrupting travel to western Mali, but that other roads including to Segou, in central Mali, were passable. Kita is around 180 km from Bamako, while Kayes is around 580 km away.
In the north of Mali, where FLA fighters seized the town of Kidal and the strategic base of Tessalit, the military is repositioning certain units as part of its response, Maiga said, without providing details.
In addition to killing Defence Minister Sadio Camara by driving a car laden with explosives into his residence, the insurgents targeted the home of Assimi Goita, leader of the government which took power following coups in 2020 and 2021, Maiga said.
Security forces “contained the threat and defused the vehicle”, he said.
Goita appeared on state television on April 28 and said the situation in Mali is under control.
Malian forces have “neutralised” several hundred “terrorists” since the April 25 attacks, Maiga said.
(Reporting by Mali newsroom, Jessica Donati and Portia Crowe; Writing by Portia Crowe; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Alison Williams)
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