Security sources in Mali have reported that at least nine Malian soldiers were killed in an attack that fighters are suspected to have been behind.

Their position at Boni, in the Mopti region, was attacked by “heavily armed individuals in armored vehicles.” The use of armored vehicles in attacks is said to be extremely rare.

An initial toll gave four as dead with 10 injured, two seriously. The military camp has reportedly been seriously damaged, with fighters having taken plenty of equipment. While a military official said the fighters had suffered “major casualties” no details were given.

According to Africa News, a brutal conflict has been raging in Mali since 2012, when fighters overtook a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg separatists in the north of the country. Thousands of both soldiers and civilians have been killed in the conflict. Further, it has spread to central Mali, and spilled into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Heni Nsaibia, a researcher with the Armed Conflict Location  and Event Data, said fightershad seized armored vehicles from the armed forces in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Africa News, meanwhile, reports that the Malian army had received air support from France’s so called ‘anti-jihadist’ Barkhane mission in the Sahel.

Central Mali has witnessed several deadly attacks since the beginning of 2021, including a roadside bomb which saw four UN peacekeepers from the Ivory Coast killed.

French and Malian troops have also carried out a joint mission in the area, called Operation Eclipse, which, in January, ‘neutralized’ 100 ‘terrorists’.

Umm Muhammed Umar