In yet another attack on military personnel in Mali, 19 soldiers were killed and five were wounded after suspected militants attacked a camp before dawn.
The camp, located near the village of Sokolo in the country’s south-central Segou Region, was attacked around 5am by a group of militants. The attackers targeted soldiers and camp structures and fled soon after.
Army spokesman Dirran Kone later said that the camp was under control, with reinforcements deployed and a search underway for the attackers. The Malian army’s official Twitter account said that a plane had been deployed to monitor the area.
The Malian military had been attacked earlier this month, with 20 injured by an attack including 18 UN peacekeepers, after a military base for UN, French and Malian forces was targeted by rockets.
A deadly attack took place in November 2019, when 53 soldiers were killed by an ambush, near the border with Niger. Just a month earlier, two jihadist assaults killed 50 soldiers near the border with Burkina Faso.
Mali’s wave of attacks is sparked by conflicts between the military and a growing jihadist revolt. The country is part of the G5 Sahel force—a five-country initiative supported by France that aims to tackle the growing threat of terror in the Sahel region. Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger are the five member states, each of whom have suffered extensively from terror attacks in the recent past.
A similar attack in Niger killed 71 in December. The alliance was formed in 2017.
