Mali military reports coordinated attacks on its positions
A military statement did not provide details about the attacks or those responsible.
No group has so far claimed responsibility, but the incidents bore the hallmarks of recent operations by al Qaeda-linked Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) militants who have conducted similar assaults in the region in recent weeks.
Mali, governed by a military junta since 2020, has for more than a decade fought insurgent groups linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda, while contending with a longer history of Tuareg-led rebellions in the north.
The attacks on Tuesday targeted Diboli in western Mali near Senegal's border, and the nearby towns of Kayes and Sandere. There were also attacks in Nioro du Sahel and Gogoui, northwest of the capital Bamako near the border with Mauritania, and in Molodo and Niono in central Mali, the army's statement said.
A spokesperson for Mali's armed forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
14 hours ago
- Reuters
Rebels armed with machetes kill at least 52 in eastern Congo
KINSHASA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Islamic State-backed rebels armed with machetes and hoes have killed at least 52 civilians in the Beni and Lubero areas of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in recent days, UN and local officials said. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels were taking revenge on civilians after suffering defeats by Congolese forces, Lieutenant Elongo Kyondwa Marx, a regional Congolese army spokesperson, said. "When they arrived, they first woke the residents, gathered them in one place, tied them up with ropes, and then began to massacre them with machetes and hoes," Macaire Sivikunula, chief of Lubero's Bapere sector, told Reuters over the weekend. About 30 civilians were killed in the village of Melia alone, Alain Kiwewe, a military administrator for the Lubero territory, told Reuters. "Among the victims were children and women whose throats were slit in their homes, while several houses were set on fire," he said. The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the attacks by the ADF between August 9 and 16, the mission's spokesperson said on Monday. The attacks killed at least 52 civilians, including eight women and two children, and the toll could rise as the search is ongoing, the spokesperson said. The ADF is among several militias wrangling over land and resources in Congo's mineral-rich east. Congo's army and its ally, Uganda, have intensified operations against the ADF in recent weeks. In late July, ADF rebels killed 38 people in an attack on a church in eastern Congo.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Iraq starts excavation of large mass grave left by Islamic State
Iraqi officials have begun the excavation of what is believed to be a mass grave left behind by the Islamic State extremist group during its rampage across the country a decade ago. Local authorities are working with the judiciary, forensic investigations, Iraq's Martyrs' Foundation, and the directorate of mass graves to carry out the excavation of the site of a sink hole in al-Khafsa, south of the northern city of Mosul, the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported Sunday. Ahmad Qusay al-Asady, head of the Martyrs Foundation's mass graves excavation department, told The Associated Press that his team began work at Khasfa on Aug. 9 at the request of Nineveh province's Gov. Abdulqadir al-Dakhil. The operation is initially limited to gathering visible human remains and surface evidence while preparing for a full exhumation that officials say will require international support. After an initial 15 days of work, the foundation's Mosul teams will build a database and start collecting DNA samples from families of suspected victims. Al-Asady explained that laboratory processing and a DNA database must come first to ensure proper identification. Full exhumations can only proceed once specialized assistance is secured to navigate the site's hazards, including sulfur water and unexploded ordnance. Khasfa is 'a very complicated site,' he said. Based on unverified accounts from witnesses and families and other unofficial testimonies, authorities estimate that thousands of bodies could be buried there, he said. Scores of mass graves containing thousands of bodies of people believed to have been killed by the extremist group have been found in Iraq and Syria. At its peak, IS ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom in Iraq and Syria and was notorious for its brutality. It beheaded civilians and enslaved and raped thousands of women from the Yazidi community, one of Iraq's oldest religious minorities. The group was defeated in Iraq in July 2017, when Iraqi forces captured the northern city of Mosul. Three months later, it suffered a major blow when Kurdish forces captured the Syrian northern city of Raqqa, which was the group's de-facto capital. The war against IS officially ended in March 2019, when U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces captured the eastern Syrian town of Baghouz, which was the last sliver of land the extremists controlled. Rabah Nouri Attiyah, a lawyer who has worked on more than 70 cases of missing people in Nineveh, told the AP that information he obtained from the foundation and different Iraqi courts during his investigations points to Khasfa as 'the largest mass grave in modern Iraqi history." Al-Asady, however, said investigators 'cannot confirm yet if it is the largest mass grave' to be found in Iraq, 'but according to the size of the space, we estimate it to be one of the largest.' Attiyah said roughly 70% of the human remains at Khasfa are believed to belong to Iraqi army and police personnel, with other victims including Yazidis. He said he has interviewed numerous eyewitnesses from the area who saw IS fighters bring people there by bus and kill them. 'Many of them were decapitated,' he said. Attiyah's own uncle and cousin were police officers killed by IS, and he is among those hoping to identify and recover the remains of loved ones. Testimonies and witness statements, as well as findings from other mass graves in Nineveh, indicate that most of the military, police and other security forces personnel killed by IS are expected to be found at Khasfa, along with Yazidis from Sinjar and Shiite victims from Tal Afar, he said.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Reuters
French embassy employee arrested in Mali on "unfounded" accusations, says French foreign office
PARIS, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A French man arrested in Mali is a member of the French embassy in the capital Bamako and accusations against him are "unfounded", the French foreign office said in a statement to Reuters on Saturday. The embassy worker, named as Yann Vezilier by the Malian government in a statement on Thursday, was arrested in recent weeks alongside two generals and other military personnel and accused of participating in an alleged plot to destabilise the West African nation. "Dialogue is underway to clear up any misunderstanding," the ministry statement said. It added that his arrest was in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. France's once close relationship with its former colonies in West Africa's Sahel region has soured in recent years since a series of military coups overthrew governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
