Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bamako (Agenzia Fides) - Today, September 8, there was an attack against an army camp near Gao airport, in the northeast of Mali. At the moment, the toll of the attack is unknown, in which several vehicles, including car bombs, participated. The assault follows two attacks yesterday, September 7, both attributed to jihadists in which at least 49 civilians and 15 soldiers also lost their lives in the north of the country. The two attacks targeted a passenger river boat, the "Timbuktu", on the Niger River, and an army post in Bamba, in the Gao region, with "a provisional toll of 49 civilians and 15 soldiers killed", according to an official statement. The government has announced three days of national mourning starting today. Yesterday's two attacks were claimed by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), affiliated with Al Qaeda, the same group that announced in early August that it had imposed a blockade on Timbuktu. The military coup plotters who seized power in two successive coups d'état expelled the French anti-jihadist force in 2022 and then the UN mission in 2023. Large areas continue to be beyond their control, while the peace agreement signed in Algiers in 2015 with the “Coordination of Azawad Movements” (CMA), the organization that brings together the various Tuareg movements that signed the peace agreement (see Fides, 23 /8/2023) has faltered. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 8/9/2023)
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