A Malian army camp was the target of a suicide attack in Gao this Friday, September 8, one day after a double attack targeting jihadists that killed at least 49 civilians and 15 soldiers also in the north of the country, between Gao and Timbuktu, where tension increases day by day. Very few details are currently available. An airport employee reported an attack carried out with two vehicle bombs, accompanied by gunfire. The airport was closed, he said.
This attack came in a context of increasing pressure from armed groups on the northern state in recent weeks, increasing the level of violence. The two separate attacks attributed to jihadists targeted the boat Timbuktu on the Niger River and a military position in Bamba, not region of Gao, according to a government press release that did not specify how many people died respectively on the ship and at the military base.
Three days of national mourning
Bamba's attack was claimed by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM, or Jnim in its Arabic acronym), a jihadist alliance affiliated with Al-Qaeda, on the Al-Zallaqa propaganda platform, according to the Site, a specialized American NGO no monitoring of radical groups. The army's response made it possible to “neutralize around fifty terrorists”, the government stated. Authorities declared three days of national mourning starting this Friday, September 8th.
O Tombutu, boat belonging to the Malian shipping company (Comanav, public), was the target of at least three rockets in the Gourma-Rharous sector, between Timbuktu and Gao, according to the company, which with some vessels provides an important connection in several of the hundreds of kilometers of Koulikoro , near Bamako, to Gao, passing through the large riverside cities. Several passengers threw themselves into the water as soon as the first shots were fired, said a Comanav official. O Timbuktu It can carry around 300 passengers, company officials said on condition of anonymity, without commenting on the number of people actually on board.
Jihadist blockade in Timbuktu
A boat had already been attacked with a rocket on September 1st in the Mopti region, further south, leaving one dead, a 12-year-old child and two injured. The river link was used by different users, traders or families, and seemed safer to many than the road, said a Comanav agent. The GSIM announced, at the beginning of August, that it would impose a blockade on Timbuktu, In a context of continuous reconfiguration of security around the “city of 333 saints” listed as a world heritage site.
The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Mali (Minusma), expelled from Mali by the ruling junta, has just left two camps near Timbuktu, Ber and Goundam, transferred to the Malian authorities. This seizure of power by the Malian state gave rise to battles with jihadists, but also to clashes with former Tuareg rebels. Timbuktu, with its collections of thousands of inhabitants on the borders of the Sahara, is one of the great cities of the North that fell to the Tuareg rebels, then Salafists, after the outbreak of the insurrection in 2012. French forces and the Malians took over the city in 2013.
Concerns about the peace agreement
Tuareg-dominated groups signed a peace agreement with the Malian state in 2015, while jihadists continued hostilities. The violence shared by the center and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, leaving thousands dead. The military has taken power by force in three countries since 2020, citing a security crisis. Recent statements in northern Mali raise concerns about the survival of the 2015 agreement and a resumption of hostilities.
The Malian military expelled the French anti-jihadist force in 2022 and the UN mission in 2023 and turned militarily and politically to Russia. They have made the restoration of sovereignty one of their mantras. But vast areas continue to slip out of their control and several experts believe the security situation will deteriorate further under from them direction.
(With AFP)
