A military camp in Sokoura, in the circle of Bankass, in central Mali, "was the subject of a terrorist attack" on the night of Monday to Tuesday, the Malian army said in a statement dated October 13. .
"They arrived on motorbikes, and in vehicles, then fired at the camp," said Serge Daniel, RFI correspondent in Mali.
A provisional assessment reports "9 dead and wounded" in its ranks.
Then, a reinforcement dispatched to the scene was "the victim of an attack" combining the explosion of an improvised device and an ambush "at the Parou bridge in the same locality" Tuesday, around 8:30 am (local and GMT).
The army counts "3 dead, 10 wounded" and missing.
Heaviest losses since August
"On the enemy side, nine terrorists were shot," said the army, adding that "the Malian military aircraft arrived in the area of the bridge and destroyed two vehicles" of the attackers.
"All these results are provisional," stressed the army, which has recorded its heaviest losses since the putsch which overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta on August 18.
Central Mali has been caught in a whirlwind of violence since the appearance, in 2015, in this region, of a jihadist group led by the Fulani preacher Amadou Koufa, who has largely recruited from his community.
Community clashes have also multiplied between the Peuls, mainly herders, and the Bambara and Dogon ethnic groups practicing mainly agriculture, who have created self-defense groups, relying in particular on traditional dozo hunters.
With AFP
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