Insurgents overrun Mali base, killing dozens of soldiers, sources say
More than 400 soldiers have reportedly been killed by insurgents since the start of May in bases and towns in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, an unstable region prone to coups.
The jihadist group, Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), said in a statement on Sunday that it had seized the base in Boulkessi in central Mali, near the border with Burkina Faso.
The Malian army said it had been forced to pull back.
'Many men fought, some until their last breath, to defend the Malian nation,' its statement said, without giving any casualty numbers.
A spokesperson did not respond to a question about the toll, but two security sources said more than 30 soldiers had been killed.
A municipal source at Mondoro, near the base, said the insurgents 'cleared the camp' and that there were many dead.
Videos shared online showed dozens of insurgents overrunning the base. One showed militants stepping on the bodies of soldiers who had fallen between sandbags. Reuters could not immediately authenticate the videos.
WIDENING INSECURITY
JNIM has claimed responsibility for a host of recent attacks in the region.
On May 24, it said it had attacked a base in Dioura, central Mali, killing 40 soldiers.
Last Friday, it said it had seized a base in Sirakorola in southwestern Mali, although the army said it had repelled the attack. It did not provide a toll for that incident either.
In neighbouring Burkina Faso, JNIM claimed attacks on military positions and the town of Djibo in mid-May in which it said it had killed 200 soldiers.
And in Niger, more than 100 soldiers were killed in two attacks in the Tahoua region on May 24 and the Dosso region on May 26, security sources said.
Neither Burkina Faso nor Niger has published an official death toll.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are all ruled by juntas that seized power between 2020 and 2023, citing the inability of civilian governments to stamp out jihadist insurgencies.
All have cut ties with Western nations and turned to Russia for military support, but are still struggling to contain violence that has displaced millions.
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Whether or not Starlink will be licensed under the conditions suitable to Trump and Musk is a moot point. Image: Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters IT must be said with a lot of painful helplessness that the tale of SpaceX's Starlink and its connection to South Africa is a story that could not be told with the confidence of full fact. It has many layers of obfuscation that started long before Elon Musk became a Special Government Employee of DOGE. The many theatrical layers lined in its ineligible pages run from December of 2023 to the 21st of May of this year, on that pitiful night of melodrama in the Oval Office. To be sure, the entire evening was dedicated to justifying why South Africa should have a CIA-controlled satellite system in South Africa. The places where it is alleged it is needed most, are the two places that could not justify a profitably sustainable economic model for the satellite behemoth. All of them in that room, well curated to proselytise the same fact, one speaker after another, confirmed that the Starlink satellite network is required for the rural areas and the police stations. You can't make this stuff up. The justification to go to the US hurriedly, it would seem, just before Musk's special status in the White House expired, was said to be the urgency to deny the accusations of genocide against farmers, or white farmers or even South African whites, terms used somewhat interchangeably. And where the opportunity permitted, fight particularly hard to preserve the privileges inherent in the Africa Growth Opportunity Act, popularly known as AGOA. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading The entire charade was disheartening. President Trump, the main genocide accuser, was not even interested in the genocide charges he ought to be fervent about. He just took stock pictures from the internet depicting Ebola victims from the Congo and called them butchered white farmers, not least for the fact that the corpses in question were encased in white sheaths. His evidence in chief was a clip of the President of EFF Julius Malema addressing a rally and chanting some song. So much for a genocide proof positive. But then again, he had no interest in proving anything. He was on a tight script. And so the true intent of the visit unfurled in painfully scripted episodes. The denouement of the plot did not reveal from the brilliance of its authorship but from the Hobbesian valour of Donald j. Trump. It was short, nasty and brutish. It segued from the delegation's defence of there being too much violence in South Africa to the urgent need for Starlink to provide effective policing on behalf of a failed defence and security cluster, its policies and their entire criminal intelligence infrastructure. Musk, standing in the audience, observed the moment with glee, savouring his victory just a mere seven days shy of the date of his leaving office. MTN is an amazing organisation that had humble beginnings from highly entrepreneurial individuals who, with the help of the State, established M-Cell, MTN's predecessor. They have had an impressive growth that has made them telecommunications giants of the continent in the main. The company boasts of powerful shareholders, including Shanduka Group, a company owned by President Cyril Ramaphosa and currently under the charge of a blind trust. The blind Trustee reposed with the privilege is Phuthuma Nhleko, who became the CEO of MTN in 2002. The current chairman of MTN is Mncebisi Jonas. Sometime in 2023, Tech Central, a publication that specialises in technology news, was emblazoned with the headline 'MTN partners with Starlink, AST for African connectivity'. The byline of the article is owed to an observer of these deeply technical issues far from the grasp of ordinary citizens. On that 19th of December, 2023, the author, Nkosinathi Ndlovu, sought to convey the novelty of this development, enthused that the telecommunications group has partnered with low-earth orbit satellite service providers, including Starlink in exploring satellite technology for direct-to-cellular connectivity and backhaul connectivity. Ndlovu was quoting from a mandated authority, one Mezan Mroue, MTN Group Chief Technology and Information Officer. The verbatim excerpt radiated the excitement of a partnership breakthrough. These are that, 'concurrently, there are ongoing engagements with SpaceX's Starlink with enterprise-grade trials underway in Rwanda and Nigeria'. Between the declaration of an Ambassador as persona non grata and the appointment of a special envoy, MTN may have already been sitting on political capital. Who knew! And, Uncle Johan Rupert was ostensibly brought along for his avuncular accompaniment, or was he? Whether or not Starlink will be licensed under the conditions suitable to Trump and Musk is a moot point. There are too many flagrant injurious steps that would offend the spirit of the Constitution and other provisions of the laws of general application. These infractions would not derive from licensing Starlink to be exact. But they would flow from the insensitivity of licensing Starlink to the exclusion of everyone else. Or what would be the point of so much dramatic genocidal allegations if Musk would be made to compete and still lose to someone else? So the laws, or the procedures attending to them, must be perverted in order to achieve this White House-curated objective. The Honourable Minister, Malatsi, has his job cut out for him. All he has to do is to promote Starlink. That takes a lot of imagination. 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