DAKAR: An attack in central Mali this week, blamed on militants, left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead, Western media reported on Thursday.
However, the Malian military said only that it had repelled a “terrorist” attack on the Farabougou camp on Tuesday, without mentioning casualties.
Central Mali is a hotbed of the violence that is plaguing the Sahel region.
As elsewhere in Mali, gathering and verifying information is complicated by the hardships in accessing remote sites or independent sources.
The Mali authorities, dominated by the colonels who seized power in 2020, are reluctant to talk about losses suffered and claim to have the upper hand over the militant groups.
A local politician said that the militant attack on Farabougou left around 60 soldiers and civilians dead, AFP reported.
He said that some people were missing since the attack. The army camp fell into the hands of the attackers who quickly left the scene.
Another resident said that if we count the civilian and military dead and the people missing, that’s at least 62 people.
A government employee also spoke of dozens and dozens of victims and reported that Farabougou, a town of a few thousand people, had been emptied.
The military acknowledged on Thursday that an attack had taken place, saying in a brief statement that it had delivered a swift response that repelled a terrorist attack targeting the Farabougou camp.
Violence in Mali
Since 2012, Mali has been battling an insurgency that started in the north of the vast West African state, claiming thousands of civilian and military lives.
Violence has subsequently swept the state while spilling over into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso — inflaming ethnic tensions along the way.
After seizing power 3 years ago, Mali’s junta ended the country’s alliance with former colonial power France, preferring rapprochement with Russia.
The junta has also ordered out the United Nations’ (UN) Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, which had for the past decade maintained nearly 15,000 soldiers and police in the country.
