Mali continues to sink into violence.
At least fifteen Malian soldiers and three civilians were killed on Wednesday July 27 in three coordinated attacks attributed to "terrorists", bringing their number to eleven in less than a week in the country.
In Kalumba, near the Mauritanian border, "the death toll on the friendly side is twelve dead, including three civilians, from a road construction company", according to a press release signed by Colonel Souleymane Dembélé, director of information and military public relations.
In Sokolo, in the center, the army reports six soldiers dead and 25 wounded, five of them seriously.
The army claims to have killed 48 assailants and "neutralized three terrorist Pick-ups 15 km from Sokolo with occupants estimated at around fifteen combatants and their equipment", it is written.
A third attack took place overnight in Mopti (center), without causing any casualties, according to the same source.
The army claims to have "routed" the attackers.
These attacks come five days after that of Kati, at the heart of the Malian military apparatus, claimed by the jihadists of Katiba Macina, affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
This suicide attack committed with two truck bombs killed a Malian soldier and injured six, including a civilian.
The day before, a series of almost simultaneous raids attributed to jihadists had hit six different localities in Mali, in the regions of Koulikoro (near Bamako) as well as Ségou and Mopti (center).
Sunday, a new attack, "thwarted" according to the Malian army, had also hit the camp of the national guard of Sévaré.
It is the first time since 2012 that such coordinated attacks have taken place in such large numbers, including some close to the capital.
Fights with terrorists
Mali, a landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, was the scene of two military coups in August 2020 and May 2021. The political crisis goes hand in hand with a serious ongoing security crisis since the outbreak, in 2012, of separatist insurgencies and bloody jihadist actions in the north.
Despite a very degraded security situation, the junta turned away from France and its partners, preferring to rely on Russia to try to stem the spread of jihadism.
In the center of Mali, the fighting is fierce between the infantrymen stamped Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM, JNIM in Arabic), affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and the forces of the regime assisted by auxiliaries of the security group private Russian Wagner.
The civilians, caught in a pincer movement, are paying a high price.
The army, which announces every week human tolls as important as they are unverifiable in its operations, has several times announced that the jihadist group was "at bay".
In Wednesday's press release, she speaks of "desperate actions by terrorists who are clearly aiming to make media stunts to hide the considerable losses they have suffered for several months".
Prevention measures
But tension is rising throughout the country and in Bamako.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Religious Affairs, Worship and Customs invited all religious denominations and associations to "prayer and blessing sessions for peace and stability in Mali".
On Wednesday, the governor of the Douentza region (center) banned vehicle traffic from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. (local and GMT) in the city of Douentza.
At the end of last week, the management of the Airport of Mali had announced a "strengthening of the control measures at the level of the access checkpoints" at the airport of Bamako, and "urged the users to reduce their movement on places, except in case of necessity".
With AFP
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