Gunshots were heard at dawn on Friday in Kati, a garrison town in the inner suburbs of Bamako, the heart of the Malian military apparatus and home of interim president Colonel Assimi Goïta, a journalist from AFP noted, as well as a local resident.
The French embassy warned its nationals via SMS of an “ongoing attack in Kati” and urged caution.
“It was around 5am (5am GMT) when unidentified gunmen attacked the town of Kati,” a resident told AFP over the phone, preferring to remain anonymous for security reasons.
“We were woken up at 5 a.m. by gunshots and the sound of explosions, we don’t know what’s going on,” confirmed another resident, as well as a third resident of this garrison town. “Our camp is under attack,” he said.
A deployment of Malian special forces was visible at 8am and two army helicopters were flying in the sky, noted an AFP journalist who also heard detonations in the camp.
The cause of the shooting, the detonations and the deployment of soldiers was unclear and local authorities could not be contacted immediately.
Kati is home to Mali’s main military base.
It is also home to the main Malian military authorities, notably the Transitional President, Colonel Assimi Goïta, and his Defense Minister, Colonel Sadio Camara.
Both studied in Kati, from where many coups in Mali emanated.
In 2020, the colonels violently seized power with three other officers in Kati. Shots were heard in the camp, then the soldiers “descended” to Bamako.
The figures arrested – President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in August 2020, President and Prime Minister Bah Ndaw and Moctar Ouane in 2021 – have been systematically arrested in the past and held in the Kati camp.
The Kati military base has never been the target of a jihadist attack.
On the other hand, six simultaneous attacks took place in central Mali and in the Koulikoro region near Bamako on Thursday.
At dawn, at the same time as Friday’s shooting, gunmen identified by the army as members of al-Qaeda-affiliated Katiba Macina attacked checkpoints, gendarmerie and military camps in six coordinated attacks, including one in the town Kolokani a hundred kilometers north of Bamako.