BAMAKO (AFP) – The Malian army said yesterday it had thwarted a new attack on a military camp in the centre of the country, two days after a deadly suicide attack in a strategic garrison town near the capital.
Armed forces “once again foiled” an attempted attack on a camp in Sevare early yesterday, the army said on social media.
“The provisional toll stands at one terrorist neutralised,” it added.
A high-ranking official from the Sevare camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP, “The situation is under control.”
“Our camp of the national guard has been attacked yesterday at Sevare by terrorists. During the response, we neutralised a terrorist,” the official said.
On Friday, Mali said it had repelled a suicide raid by Al-Qaeda-linked extremists of the Katiba Macina group with two vehicle-borne bombs that killed one soldier in Kati, the Malian military establishment.
The Malian army has intensified its anti-extremist operations in recent months, relying on what it describes as Russian instructors.
Despite a deteriorating security situation, the junta turned its back on France and its international partners, instead leaning on Russia to stem the threat posed by extremist to Mali, as well as Burkina Faso and Niger.
