Following the bloodiest recent attack by insurgents, Mali declared three days of national mourning, which will start on Thursday.
The military reported that 42 soldiers were killed in an attack on Sunday in Gao’s northern area. Militants employed drones, artillery, and booby-trapped cars, according to a statement.
On Sunday, insurgents stormed a police station close to the Burkina Faso border, killing five police personnel there. According to Soulaimane Traore, director-general of the national police, three further policemen are still missing following the attack on the Sona border police station.
The next day, terrorists from the JNIM organisation, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility.
Mali and its international allies have been battling insurgency for almost ten years, but things recently started to get worse after France started removing its troops due to a string of disagreements with the Malian government.
In the northern towns of Mali, France oversaw a military campaign in 2013 to drive out Islamic terrorists. However, those factions soon came together again and started launching attacks against the military and U.N. peacekeepers farther southward.
After two coups were staged by a junta under the command of Col. Assimi Goita in the course of nine months in 2020 and 2021, France announced its pullout plan. Observers worry that the disarray has allowed extremists to fill yet another power gap and carry out other atrocities.
The Mali War is an ongoing armed conflict that started in January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa. On January 16, 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence or greater autonomy for northern Mali, which they called Azawad.