49 civilians,15 soldiers killed in Mali attacks

BAMAKO: Forty-nine civilians and 15 soldiers were killed in Mali on Thursday when assailants opened fire on a boat on a waterway and raided a camp in Gao region, a hotbed of militancy over the past decade.

Mali’s interim government said insurgents from a West African branch of Al Qaeda, called Jamaat Nusrat Al Islam Wal Muslimeen (JNIM), were responsible for the attacks.

The group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a military base in north-eastern Mali on Friday.

The JNIM said it was behind a suicide bombing on a military base next to Gao International Airport.

Mali is one of several West African countries battling violent insurgencies linked to Al Qaeda and the militant

Islamic State group that took root in Mali’s arid north in 2012 before spreading across the region.

Frustration about growing insecurity have spurred military coups in the three worst-hit countries _ Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger _ since 2020, worrying global powers with strategic interests in the region.

The latest spate of violence began on Thursday when militants fired a shell at the engine of a passenger boat, which was transporting military personnel near Gao.

Soldiers responded with gunfire, but many passengers jumped overboard in panic. Some could not swim.

“Most of the deaths were more by drowning than by bullets,” he said.

The other attack on Thursday was on an army base about 230km north of the boat attack..

Attacks have worsened in Mali since the military seized power in two coups in 2020 and 2021, kicked out French forces and the UN peacekeeping mission and teamed up with Russian private military contractor Wagner Group.