Ten civilians and three soldiers were killed and 88 militants “neutralized” in multiple incidents across Mali on Saturday, the government said, in a wave of bloodshed it described as a resurgence of “terrorist incidents.”
Early on Saturday morning, suspected militants attacked the Mopti Airport area in Sevare, detonating car bombs, which killed 10 civilians and injured 61 others, the government said in a statement.
The blasts destroyed some houses in the airport’s surrounding area, which is home to a Malian military camp.
Photo: AFP
“Thanks to the legendary determination of our valiant armed forces, operating exclusively with their own resources, the attackers were routed and 28 terrorists were neutralized,” it said.
A local elected official earlier said that Senegalese soldiers from the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), were involved in the fighting.
MINUSMA’s camp covers 4 hectares next to the airport and the Malian army camp.
“MINUSMA strongly condemns the 22 April attacks on the Malian Armed Forces camp in Sevare and the nearby car bombings that killed and injured civilians... Shots were also fired toward the MINUSMA camp,” the mission said in a statement on Saturday.
“MINUSMA declares its readiness to provide all necessary support to the Malian authorities to conduct the required investigations,” it added.
Two local elected officials and a diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, referred to the base as a “Russian” camp.
Mali’s junta last year began working with what it calls Russian military “instructors.” Opponents say these are mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group.
“It is the Russian camp and their planes that have been targeted — the camp is near the airport,” an elected official said.
In separate incidents on Saturday, the Malian army “destroyed a terrorist sanctuary in Mourdiah and neutralized some 60 terrorists in Boni,” the government said.
Boni is also in Mopti, while Mourdiah is in the Koulikoro region near the border with Mauritania.
“A supply mission of the Malian Armed Forces was ambushed just 10km from Mourdiah on the road to Nara,” the Nara governorate said in a statement earlier on Saturday.
The area around Nara was also the site of an ambush on an official delegation on Tuesday.
The chief of staff of Mali’s transitional president and at least two others died in that attack, which was claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.
Also on Saturday, an air force helicopter crashed in a residential neighborhood of the capital, Bamako, killing three military crew members and injuring six civilians, the government statement said.
It said the crash occurred “following a typical aerial surveillance operation of Bamako.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a military source earlier on Saturday said that the helicopter had been returning “from the Mauritanian border where it had intervened against jihadists.”
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