By RFPosted on 05-11-2019Modified on 05-11-2019 at 20:02

Several soldiers are still missing in Mali after Friday's Indelimane attack, which left 48 dead in the army. A very heavy balance, especially as the armed forces were on alert since the double attack of Boulikessi and Mondoro September 30 and October 1, which had already made forty deaths. An alert that particularly concerned the Indelimane camp.

The threats on the Indelimane camp were known to the Malians and even reached the ears of the Nigerian military, since according to our information, they had increased their vigilance, south of the Ansongo-Menaka Wildlife Reserve, a forest acacias on the border between the two countries and now a landmark for the jihadists of the Islamic State in the Great Sahara.

It is about fifty kilometers south of Indelimane that a suspicious group was detected several days before the attack thanks to conversations picked up by radios.

According to two sources, one Malian, the other foreign, the jihadists had even conducted a tracking by means of a small drone about a month ago. And in fact the assault visibly well prepared has resulted in a human toll but also very heavy equipment since official sources the attackers are left with 9 vehicles. An important achievement that strengthens a little more arsenal that may have constituted the jihadists in their latest attacks.

How to explain such losses in a context of maximum alert? The lack of assurance and training of soldiers in the face of asymmetric combat, says a Malian security official, who also points to the lack of rapid reinforcement on the scene. Our interlocutor also mentioned the recurring difficulty for FAMA to rely on information provided by friendly sources, but often unusable because without detailed enough detail about the enemy or its location.

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