Forty-nine civilians and 15 soldiers were killed in Mali when assailants opened fire on a boat on a waterway and raided a camp in Gao region, a hotbed of militancy over the past decade.
Mali’s interim government said insurgents from a West African branch of Al Qaeda, called Jamaat Nusrat Al Islam Wal Muslimeen (JNIM), were responsible for the attacks.
The group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a military base in north-eastern Mali on Friday. The JNIM said it was behind a suicide bombing on a military base next to Gao Interna-tional Airport.
Mali is one of several West African countries battling violent insurgencies linked to Al Qaeda and the militant
Islamic State group that took root in Mali’s arid north in 2012 before spreading across the region.
Frustration about growing insecurity have spurred military coups in the three worst-hit coun-tries _ Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger _ since 2020, worrying global powers with strategic interests in the region.
The latest spate of violence began on Thursday when militants fired a shell at the engine of a passenger boat, which was transporting military personnel near Gao.—APP
