Bamako, April 25, (dpa/GNA) – The Malian military on Saturday, said the situation was under control, after attacks by “unknown armed terrorists” on barracks and other targets in Bamako.
There were also attacks in additional locations in the country, the general staff reported. By the afternoon, the military stated that the situation was under control, with several terrorists “neutralized” and their equipment destroyed.
The information could not be independently verified. The military did not provide specific details on the number of people who were killed or injured.
Mali, a landlocked West African country, has been ruled by a military junta since May last year.
The German embassy in Bamako earlier issued a statement to Germans citizens in the country saying the situation was unclear. It added that the airport had been shut down, advising citizens to seek shelter and avoid the city region.
A dpa reporter in Bamako said locals near the airport reported hearing explosions. Reports on social media suggested attacks were also taking place in the eastern city of Gao, Mopti in the Inner Niger delta and Kati, which lies to the north-west of Bamako.
The military offered no details on the attackers. There have been repeated attacks by the JNIM Salafist jihadi group, an al-Qaeda affiliate formed in 2017.
‘Major escalation’
“This morning’s attacks represent a major escalation in the conflict, a new stage reached by armed groups in the strategy that has driven them in recent years to attack Mali’s main urban centres,” Jean-HervĂ© Jezequel, West Africa Director at the International Crisis Group said later on Saturday.
Since 2022, JNIM-led attacks on urban centres in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have more than tripled. “Whereas JNIM’s strategy initially relied primarily on conquering rural or peripheral areas, it now also targets major cities,” he said.
Ulf Lässing, head of the Sahel Programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) in Bamako, called Saturday’s attack the largest to be carried out by jihadists and Tuareg rebels since 2012. “A new level of escalation has been reached,” he said.
The UN’s MINUSMA mission attempted to stabilize the security situation in the former French colony between 2013 and 2023, when the government asked it to leave.
GNA