Armed men attacked, early on Tuesday April 18th, a Malian special forces’ camp in the circle of Gourma Rahrous, located 160 km from the city of Timbuktu.
“I was about to go out to pray when I started hearing the gun shots. They were really deafening”, says the resident contacted by Sahelien.com. As I speak to you, a great smoke emanates from the side of the camp, or is the residence of the prefect. I do not know … “, says another, panicked.
From local security sources, the army “reacted strongly” and eventually repelled the attack. No official report yet, but local sources mention the death of at least two soldiers and military equipment burnt. The attackers left the town shortly thereafter, according to witnesses, some bodies in the trunk of the pickups.
In Bamako, the Armed Forces Information and Public Relations Department (Dirpa) also confirms the attack without wanting to give further details. “There has necessarily been some losses of human life, but I can not tell you anything like that at this moment”, says its director, Col. Diarran Koné.
In 2015, a similar attack, claimed by Aqim, killed 11 in the army in the same locality.
In northern Mali the security situation is still precarious since the terrorist occupation between 2012 and 2013. The signing of a peace agreement in June 2015 was not enough to reduce attacks on Malian and foreign forces. Or even the civilian population.
Aboubacar Dicko