Terrorist attack kills 53 soldiers in Mali

Ahmed Adel

A terrorist attack on a Mali military post in the northeast of the country on Friday killed 53 soldiers, in one of the deadliest strikes against Mali’s military in recent Islamist militant violence.

A civilian was also killed at the outpost in Indelimane, in the Menaka region, close to the border with Niger, the country’s communication minister Yaya Sangare said on Twitter.

“The situation is under control. A search and the process of identifying the bodies is continuing,” he added, after giving the latest update on the death toll.

He said 10 survivors were found at the outpost, which suffered “significant” damage.

The Malian government earlier condemned the “terrorist attack,” saying it had left numerous dead or wounded

The attack takes place a month after two jihadist assaults killed 40 soldiers near the border with Burkina Faso, however several sources said the death toll is more than this.

An army officer told AFP that the terrorists carried out a surprise attack at lunchtime.

Moreover, another French soldier, namely Corporal Ronan Pointeau, was killed in Mali, according to a French presidency statement, after his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb following the attack on the Malian army.

However, French military spokesman Colonel Frederic Barbry said, according to AFP, that Pointeau’s incident had “no link” to the attack on Malian soldiers.

France’s Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said she would visit Mali “very soon” to hold discussions with the authorities in Mali to discuss the security situation.

The series of attacks come nearly a month after an attack near the border with Burkina Faso that left 40 soldiers dead.

Researcher in African Affairs Mohamed Ezz ed-Din told The Reference in an interview that the Sahel region and African desert are currently boiling due to armed operations by terrorist organizations that got even more extreme during the recent period after security crackdowns.

He further added that Daesh and al-Qaeda are competing to spread and hold even more threatening statuses in the African Sahel  among a deteriorating security situation.