Bamako – The Islamic State on Saturday claimed responsibility for adevastating raid that killed 49 Malian troops as well as a blast that ledto the death of a French soldier who became the latest casualty in theconflict-torn region.
The strikes underscored the fragility of an area straddling several WestAfrican countries battling increasing jihadist violence that has claimedhundreds of lives.
Friday’s assault on a Malian military outpost at Indelimane in the easternMenaka region near Niger killed 49 soldiers, wounded three and left 20survivors, the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) said Saturday.
“Soldiers of the caliphate attacked a military base where elements of theapostate Malian army were stationed in the village of Indelimane,” the ISsaid in a statement on its social media channels.
On Saturday, French corporal Ronan Pointeau, 24, died after an armouredvehicle in which he was travelling hit an improvised explosive device (IED)near the city of Menaka, a French defence ministry statement said.
The IS late Saturday also claimed responsibility for that, saying itsfighters had “detonated an explosive device on a French army convoy in theIndelimane area”.
Pointeau and his colleagues were escorting a convoy between the cities ofGao and Menaka.
“This insidious attack shows the importance and bitterness of the fightagainst armed terrorist groups” in the border region straddling Mali, Nigerand Burkina Faso, the French defence ministry said.
French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said she would be “visitingMali very soon to hold discussions with Malian authorities.”
President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Pointeau and expressed solidaritywith the French and African troops fighting in the region.
The Malian government initially said 53 people died in what it described asa “terrorist attack” at Indelimane.
An army officer said troops arrived at the outpost around 5:00 pm on Fridayand “took back control of our positions.
“The terrorists carried out a surprise attack at lunchtime. Army vehicleswere destroyed, others taken away,” he told AFP.
The attacks came a month after two jihadist assaults killed 40 soldiersnear the border with Burkina Faso. Several sources have said the real deathtoll was higher.
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MINUSMA, the UN mission in Mali, condemned the raid and said itspeacekeepers were helping Malian troops secure the region.
– ‘We can resist’ –
“This bloodshed that Mali has been living through cannot go on,” imamMahamound Dicko, an influential religious leader in Mali, said.
“Do you want us to resign ourselves to this suffering? We can resist,” headded.
Rights activist Alioune Tine, from Mali’s western neighbour Senegal, calledfor action across Africa to tackle the threat.
“If Africa does not mobilise for Mali and Burkina (Faso), it won’t bespared the bushfire that is quickly catching West Africa’s coastalcountries, the next chosen targets” of the jihadists, he said.
The violence has also spilled over into Burkina Faso and Niger whereextremists have exploited existing inter-communal strife, leaving hundredsdead.
In Mali, the attacks have spread from the arid north to its centre, anethnically mixed and explosive region.
The recent assaults are a humiliation for the so-called G5 Sahel force — amuch-trumpeted initiative under which five countries created a joint5,000-man anti-terror force — and for former colonial ruler France, whichis helping to bring security to the fragile region.
Northern Mali came under the control of Al-Qaeda linked jihadists afterMali’s army failed to quash a rebellion there in 2012.
A French-led military campaign was launched against the jihadists, pushingthem back a year later.
But the jihadists have regrouped and widened their hit-and-run raids andlandmine attacks to central and southern Mali. -APP/AFP
