Attacks on Passenger Boat and Army Base in Mali Leave Dozens Killed
64 people were reportedly killed on Thursday in suspected jihadist attacks on an army base and a passenger boat on the Niger River in northern Mali.
LAHORE MIRROR (AFP) – A government statement stated that 49 civilians and 15 troops were killed in the two separate attacks, which were directed at the Timbuktu boat on the Niger River and an army station at Bamba in the northern Gao region.
Mali
Images on social media showed a cloud of black smoke rising above the river. The incident took place in a remote area and the images could not be verified independently.
The Niger is a vital transport link in a region where road infrastructure is poor and railways absent.
The attack comes after an al-Qaeda-linked alliance, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), announced last month that it was blockading Timbuktu, the historic crossroads city of northern Mali.
The impoverished state has been struggling with insecurity since 2012, when a revolt led by ethnic Tuaregs erupted in the troubled north.
The insurgency was fanned by jihadists, who three years later took their own campaign into central Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, sending shockwaves across the Sahel.
In northern Mali, the regional rebellion was formally ended by a peace agreement signed between the rebels and the Malian government in 2015.
However, the fragile deal came under strain after the civilian government was toppled in 2020 and replaced by a junta.
Tensions in the region have revived in recent weeks after the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, which has been told to leave by year’s end, handed over two bases near Timbuktu to the armed forces.
The handover triggered clashes between the army and the jihadists and led to an angry showdown with the former rebels, stoking fears for the 2015 peace agreement.
