Army Reports Six Malian Soldiers Killed in Attack

According to an army report, six Malian troops were killed in an attack by “armed terrorist groups” in the country’s north.

According to an earlier army statement on the incident, the attack in Ber on Friday left one soldier dead and four others injured.

Six people have now died, it was reported on Saturday, and “in their rout, armed terrorist groups abandoned 24 bodies.”

According to the soldiers, they also left behind motorbikes and AK-47 assault firearms.

According to the report, there were skirmishes in the Timbuktu region as a result of “terrorist groups’ attempted incursion and harassing fire against FAMa (Malian Armed Forces) units.”

The U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, is getting ready to leave the nation, and the Malian forces were supposed to be stationed in Ber as part of a handover, according to the army.

The Mali junta, which has been in charge since 2020, requested in June that MINUSMA be withdrawn by the end of the year.

Tuaregs describe an army assault

Former Tuareg rebels said that the army and the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner attacked their men in Ber on Friday.

In a statement to AFP on Saturday, the Coordination of Azawad Movements, which governs sizable portions of the north, claimed that “manoeuvres against its positions by the Malian armed forces accompanied by the Wagner militia.”

A coalition of Tuareg-dominated organisations aiming for independence or autonomy from the Malian state is known as the CMA.

It said, referring to a 2015 peace deal, “The FAMa is determined to occupy MINUSMA’s holdings at all costs, including those in areas under CMA control, in violation of all the security arrangements guaranteed to date by the U.N. mission and the international community”.

The divide between the former Tuareg rebels and the nation’s military rulers grew on Thursday when it was revealed that all of their delegates were leaving Bamako due to “security” concerns.

The CMA also berates the military for adopting a revised constitution in June, which it considers to be in violation of the accord.

With France, Mali’s former colonial power, at odds, the military administration has turned to Russia for political and military assistance.

Mali has been experiencing a severe security crisis since 2012, which started with an Islamist insurgency in the north and has since moved to the country’s centre and the neighbouring nations of Burkina Faso and Niger.