BAMAKO (AFP) – Two Malian soldiers were killed early on Sunday in northern Mali in an attack on their post blamed on extremists, the army announced on social networks.
An “armed terrorist group” attacked the Niafunke post in the early hours, the army said, using a term commonly used to refer to extremists.
“The toll is two dead on the FAMa (Malian Armed Forces) side and five dead on the attackers’ side,” it added.
The deaths are the first announced by the Malian army since a January 5 report of six deaths during clashes in November and December.
In the meantime, the Malian army has claimed responsibility for the death of dozens of extremists and the destruction of several of their bases since the launch in December of
operation Keletigui.
Mali has been struggling to contain an extremist insurgency that first emerged in 2012 and has since spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
