The Malian army said on Sunday it had “thwarted” a new attack on a military camp in the center of the country, two days following a suicide attack which targeted the garrison town of Kati at the gates of the capital Bamako.
“The Malian armed forces (Fama) have once once more foiled an attempted attack on the GNM (National Guard of Mali) camp in Sévaré early this Sunday, July 24, 2022 around 5:40 a.m. The provisional report shows a neutralized terrorist “, assured the army on its social networks.
“Our national guard camp was attacked this Sunday in Sévaré by terrorists (…) During the response we neutralized a terrorist. The situation is under control”, assured AFP a senior officer of the camp. of the national guard of Sévaré on condition of anonymity.
This attack comes two days following that of Kati, in the heart of the Malian military apparatus, claimed by the jihadists of Katiba Macina, affiliated with Al-Qaeda. This suicide attack committed with two truck bombs killed at least one Malian soldier, injured six, including a civilian, while seven assailants were “neutralized” and eight others arrested.
The day before, a series of almost simultaneous raids attributed to jihadists had hit six different localities in Mali, in the regions of Koulikoro (near Bamako) as well as Ségou and Mopti (center).
Armed men identified by the army as members of the Katiba Macina had attacked checkpoints, gendarmerie, military camp, in particular in the locality of Kolokani, regarding a hundred kilometers north of Bamako.
This is the first time since 2012 that such coordinated attacks have taken place so close to the capital.
Mali, a landlocked country in the heart of the Sahel, was the scene of two military coups in August 2020 and May 2021.
The political crisis goes hand in hand with a serious ongoing security crisis since the outbreak, in 2012, of separatist insurgencies and bloody jihadist actions in the north.
Despite a very degraded security situation, the junta turned away from France and its partners, preferring to rely on Russia to try to stem the jihadist spread which has spread to a large part of the country as well as Burkina Faso. and neighboring Niger.