According to an army report released on Thursday, at least 14 Malian troops were killed and 11 were injured in confrontations with jihadists in the country's Centre on Tuesday, an incident claimed by Al-Qaeda with varying statistics.
According to prior information shared on condition of anonymity by commanders of the army and the gendarmerie, at least 12 Malian soldiers were killed the day before during these skirmishes between Mopti and Ségou following many attacks against the army with homemade explosives.
The Malian army claims to have neutralised "31 terrorists" on the "enemy side," according to a statement emailed to AFP.
The jihadists of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM, JNIM in Arabic), who are affiliated with Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for a "double ambush targeting Malian soldiers and mercenaries from the Wagner group in the region of Mopti," according to a press release authenticated by the American NGO SITE, which specialises in the monitoring of radical groups and was consulted Thursday by AFP.
The first attack was conducted out "with a mine" on the road between Tenenkou and Macina during which "an unknown number of Malian troops and Wagner mercenaries were killed and wounded".
According to the JNIM group, which "recognises the murder of five martyrs," it was followed by a second assault "with three explosive devices" between Koumara and Macina in which "five Wagner mercenaries and seven Malian troops were killed" and scores of others were injured.
Some nations accuse Mali's ruling junta of using the private paramilitary organisation Wagner, which is said to be tied to the Kremlin, which Bamako denies.
Since 2012, Mali has been plagued by the development of the jihadist movement as well as a severe multifaceted political, economic, and humanitarian catastrophe. The country's centre is one of the hotspots of violence, which has expanded to neighbouring nations like Burkina Faso and Niger and is extending southward.
The colonels who took control in a putsch in 2020 and were supported by a second coup in 2021 shifted away from the erstwhile French ally and its partners, instead turning militarily and diplomatically towards Russia.
At the end of 2021, the junta started an offensive in central Mali. She claimed to have trapped the terrorists and forced them to flee across the nation.
However, according to a report delivered to the Security Council on Tuesday by its secretary general, security circumstances in the Sahel region's centre, "particularly in Burkina Faso and Mali," continued to deteriorate between June and December 2022.
"In Mali, when foreign forces left, armed groups surged in the east of the country, seizing control of major border territories with Niger," the study said.