Bamako (Mali) | AFP and Portal
At least 49 civilians and 15 soldiers died when Islamist militants attacked a military camp and a ship in northeastern Mali on Thursday, the country’s interim government said.
Many more were injured, the government added, noting the death toll is preliminary.
During the rainy season, insurgents attacked a boat carrying civilians across the flooded plains between the towns of Gao and Mopti. The ship was on its way from Gao when it was hit.
The attackers also attacked a military camp in Bourem Circle, an administrative district of the Gao region in northeastern Mali.
In response, about 50 attackers were killed. The government declared three days of national mourning.
Mali is one of several West African countries battling a violent insurgency linked to alQaeda and the Islamic State that took hold in the country’s arid north in 2012.
The militants have gained ground and are spreading in the Sahel and West African coastal states despite costly international efforts to support local forces. Thousands of people have been killed and more than six million displaced in the subSaharan Sahel region.
Frustration over growing insecurity has led to two military takeovers in Mali and two in Burkina Faso since 2020 four of eight coups in West and Central Africa in the past three years.