At least 49 people have died this Thursday in a terrorist attack in Mali. Likewise, fifteen other soldiers died in an assault on a military base and 50 terrorists were killed in an operation that sought to respond to the two previous attacks. But the numbers are never exact in that place where no one is looking. There may be a few more. They can be less. It is only clear that deaths as a result of jihadism are increasing in Mali and with no signs of ending, while the Malian Government is barely managing to manage the situation with the help of its newly acquired weaponry made in Russia (Su-25 aircraft), China (troop transport vehicles) and Turkey (Bayraktar TB2 drones).
The attack against civilians it was treason. The Timbuktu transport ship was plying the waters of the Niger River that lead from the town of Gao to Mopti, in an area increasingly affected by the jihadist insurgency, with dozens of well-off civilians inside: children, tamely bleating goats and tied chickens. by the legs. This was not a military ship. And the terrorists belonging to the JNIM group opened fire at 11 am on Thursday and killed them. The Malian government has established three days of national mourning as a result of what happened, although its inherent fear of the military junta, whose defeats directly confront its apparently victorious line of propaganda, prevents an in-depth understanding of the events. It is known that they were killed.
This is the second such attack in a week. On September 1, another ship of the same company going from Mopti to Timbuktu was subject to an “attack with heavy weapons (rocket)” by the jihadists. The balance reported one dead, a 12-year-old child, and two injured.
Almost at the same time as the attack on the ship, this Thursday, the terrorists began another operation against the Malian military base of Bamba, in Gao, where another 15 soldiers were killed and thus raising the number of victims to 64, which is the official figure. that they have recognized since Bamako. The Malian Armed Forces (FAMA) organized a rapid counterattack in response to the jihadist actions and managed to kill fifty terroristsas stated in statement number 58 of the Transition Government: “In response to this double attack, a combined air and ground action by our brave FAMA has made it possible to neutralize fifty terrorists.”
The situation of jihadism in Mali worsens after the military junta has ordered the withdrawal of the blue helmets as a result of a cluster of incidents that occurred with the United Nations representatives in the country, but also with its Secretary General, Antonio Guterres. Up to 12,000 soldiers and police who were actively participating in the stabilization of the center and north of the country are currently in the process of withdrawing, with the consequences that this entails. LA RAZÓN already reported several weeks ago new tensions between the Tuareg secessionists and the FAMA (supported by a Wagner Group whose future is today uncertain) for control of the Ber base, recently abandoned by the UN contingent and located 60 kilometers from the city from Timbuktu.
Timbuktu, whose entrances have been cordoned off by the jihadists for a month. Trucks are prohibited from entering the city from Algeria and Mauritania, amidst the cost of living has skyrocketed and civilians fear an imminent attack. The river attacks of the last week were due to this blockade. The worsening of Malian insecurity is a logical consequence of the withdrawal of MINUSMA (the United Nations mission in the country), the withdrawal of 2,400 French troops in August last year and the reduction to minimums of the EUTM Mali training and advisory force of the European Union, all in exchange for an undetermined number, around 1,000 troops, of Wagner mercenaries.
