An attack attributed to jihadists against a camp of the Malian army killed many people on Friday March 4 in Mondoro, in the center of the country, AFP learned from various interlocutors informed of the situation.
At least 27 Malian soldiers died and 33 others were injured, 21 of them seriously, in the attack, the government said in a statement read on national television.
Seven other soldiers are missing, he added.
According to an elected official in the region, the information is fragmented because communications with Mondoro, in a remote area, are cut off, he said.
"The attack claimed many victims," confirmed Moussa Ongoiba, a member of an association of people from Mondoro, based in Bamako.
A French military source, on condition of anonymity, says the attack by several hundred jihadists took place around 6 a.m. on the camp occupied by around 150 Malian soldiers.
"The Fama (Malian Armed Forces) did not request support from (the French anti-jihadist force) Barkhane. The Mondoro camp is in an area where Barkhane was asked not to operate, no doubt due to of the presence of mercenaries from (the Russian private company) Wagner," she added.
In full military reconfiguration
The Mondoro camp, near the border with Burkina Faso, has repeatedly been the target of attacks by jihadists seeking to impose their hold on the representations of the central state or the foreign presence.
An operation against the camp and that of nearby Boulkessi had killed around fifty soldiers in September 2019.
In January 2021, "coordination between the Fama and Barkhane had made it possible to rout a hundred attackers who were trying to seize the Mondoro camp", argued the French military source.
"Less than an hour after the Fama alert, Barkhane had engaged two Tiger combat helicopters and two Mirage 2000 fighter planes".
The camp is in one of the main centers of violence which, starting in northern Mali with separatist and jihadist insurgencies in 2012, has spread to the center, to neighboring Burkina and Niger.
Jihadist actions, combined with inter-community violence, villainous acts but also abuses by the army, have left thousands of civilians and soldiers dead, and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Friday's attack comes amid a military reconfiguration.
In recent months, many reinforcements have arrived in Mali, presented by the Malian authorities as Russian instructors, and by Westerners as Wagner's mercenaries.
>> To read: With the departure of Barkhane, the option of a negotiation with the jihadists relaunched in Mali
France and its European allies within the Takuba special forces group have just announced their military withdrawal from Mali.
Against the backdrop of strong diplomatic tensions between the junta in power since 2020 and some of Mali's partners, first and foremost France, the Malian army has for weeks been proclaiming successes against the jihadists since the start of an operation in December.
With AFP and Reuters
The summary of the
France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 app
google-play-badge_EN