Monday’s strike in a Mali region heavily impacted by insurgents activity resulted in the death of one policeman and three additional injuries, according to a top official.
Around two in the morning, an attack took place on a gendarmerie post at Sebekoro in the Kita area, about 130 kilometres from Bamako, the capital. Local official Djiby Diawara informed newsmen of the incident.
“The toll — one gendarme killed, three wounded, one of them seriously, who was taken to the military clinic in Kati,” he said.
“We are preparing to bury the young gendarme who was killed,” he said.
The attack is the third to have occurred close to Bamako in the past week. The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), headed by a Tuareg with ties to Al-Qaeda named Iyad Ag Ghali, claimed responsibility for the two prior attacks that took the lives of two firefighters and three civilians.
Mali has been experiencing a security crisis for almost 11 years, which was brought on by a local uprising in the north of the country that turned into a full-fledged insurgency.
One of the world’s poorest nations has suffered terrible economic loss, thousands of deaths, and hundreds of thousands of home evacuations.
The military has been in charge of the nation since August 2020, which has caused a rift with Mali’s longtime ally France and strengthened ties with Russia and the Russian-owned mercenary Wagner Group.