BAMAKO (AFP/Reuters) – A militant attack on a military camp in central Mali on Friday killed 27 soldiers and 47 “terrorists” were “neutralized”, the country’s army said.
The fighting left 33 soldiers injured, 21 seriously, and seven are missing, the army added in a statement, while 23 other suspects were “neutralized” later in the day.
The West African state has been battling militant movements affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Daesh terrorist group for almost a decade, with around two-thirds of its territory outside state control.
A military source speaking on condition of anonymity said hundreds of militants attacked the camp of around 150 soldiers close to 0600 GMT, putting the death toll between 40 and 50.
Mali’s army said the attack happened around 0530 GMT.
The militants seized 21 vehicles, including tanks, and injured more than 20 soldiers, the source added.
The Mondoro base is near Mali’s border with Burkina Faso and has previously been targeted by militants fighting the Malian state and foreign forces.
Around 50 soldiers died after an attack on Mondoro and the nearby Boulkessi camp in September 2019.
Meanwhile, the United Nations says it is investigating reports that dozens of people were massacred in central Mali.
Olivier Salgado, spokesperson of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) made the remarks after a video circulating on social media showed dozens of badly-burned bodies with their eyes blindfolded in the flashpoint town of Diabaly, where extremist militants are battling Malian soldiers.
An official in central Mali, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the video shows the bodies of 35 men that were found on Tuesday night in Diabaly, adding that there were no eyewitnesses to the men’s deaths but that they are believed to be people who were arrested by the Malian army, some on February 20 and others on March 1.
A senior Malian military officer, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the video was filmed in Diabaly but that the circumstances of the deaths were not yet clear.
The UN has repeatedly accused Malian soldiers of summarily executing civilians and suspected militants over the course of their decade-long fight against groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The military has in some cases acknowledged that its forces were implicated in executions and other abuses, but few soldiers have faced criminal charges.
The latest development comes as relations between France and Mali have deteriorated since the ruling military took power in August 2020.
Back in February, Paris declared that it would withdraw thousands of troops from Mali due to a breakdown in relations with the country, a decade after launching a war without the initial approval of the United Nations or the French parliament.
Mali’s armed forces spokesperson Souleymane Dembele shrugged off France’s announcement, insisting that European troops had failed to curb militancy.