Attack by Al Qaeda affiliate in Mali results in the deaths of dozens of individuals

This week, an Al-Qaeda affiliate carried out a complex attack in Mali’s capital that killed around 70 people, according to foreign and security sources who spoke to the media on Thursday. The government did not say how many people were killed.

On Tuesday, militants attacked the airport and a school for elite police officers, showing that they could hit right in the middle of Mali’s city. In the dry north of the country, an uprising began more than ten years ago and is still going strong.

The attacks’ size and complexity make it even less likely for the ruling junta to say that security has gotten better since it kicked out French and U.S. troops and turned to Russia for help.

Two officials working in the area, one of whom was based in Bamako, said they thought the number of deaths was in the 70s. Reuters could not check the facts on their own.

A third official who lives in the area said that hundreds of people were killed or hurt and that hospitals were full of people who needed to be treated.

Since the fighting started in Mali, it has spread to neighboring countries in the Sahel and to the north of coastal countries. In the area, thousands of people have died and millions have been forced to leave their homes. Some of the attackers are linked to Al Qaeda or Islamic State.

Al-Qaeda’s Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility for the attack on Tuesday.

Mali’s ruling group said it lost some things, but they didn’t say what they were. A newspaper in Mali said that about 50 police cadets would be laid to rest on Thursday.

Reuters was not able to get any more information or prove that the services did happen.

There were videos of the attack on social media that showed rebels setting fire to the presidential jet and finding bodies at the police school.

A few days ago, Assimi Goita, the leader of Mali’s junta, who took power in a coup in 2021, said that his army had made the armed groups it is fighting with Russia’s help much weaker.

On top of that, the attack comes right after a battle in July in which many Russian mercenaries and Mali’s own forces were killed by rebels near Mali’s northern border with Algeria.