Several Malian soldiers died Thursday morning following a large-scale attack by suspected jihadists on a military outpost in the remote west of the land lockled west African nation.
An elected representative of the nearby town of Mourdiah, 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of the capital Bamako said; “More than 100 jihadists attacked an army position at Kwala.”
“Several soldiers were killed, the jihadists took over the place before leaving without a problem,” he said, asking to remain anonymous.
A local political official confirmed the events adding that the army “camp was first hit with a car bomb”.
A second elected official said there had been a lot of gunfire and government troops returned to the base after the jihadists left.
The army reported the assault in a statement, making no mention of casualties in its ranks and claiming to have “found and destroyed” a large number of “terrorists”.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Mali’s military junta pushed out a French anti-jihadist force in 2022 amid deteriorating relations following military coups in 2020 and 2021.
Mali has since pivoted towards Russia, both politically and militarily.
In another report, rescuers pulled more than 20 bodies from the sea off northern Senegal on Wednesday after a boat loaded with migrants heading for Europe sank, a regional governor told reporters.
“A little more than 20 bodies” had been found, Saint-Louis regional governor Alioune Badara Samb said by telephone, adding that another 20 people had been saved.
Badara Samb did not say how many passengers were aboard the vessel but survivors told AFP that the number could have been in the hundreds.
Mamady Dianfo, from Casamance in the far south of the country, said there were about 300 passengers when the boat left Senegal a week ago.
Another survivor, Alpha Balde, spoke of 200 passengers.
Senegal’s coasts are an increasingly common departure point for African migrants heading to the Spanish Canary Islands, their port of entry into Europe.