Gao Military Camp Attacked

A Malian army camp was targeted by a suicide attack in Gao on Friday, the day after a double attack attributed to jihadists which killed at least 64 civilians and soldiers in the north, where tension is increasing day by day.

The military spoke in a brief post on social media of a “complex” attack in the airport area, that is to say, it involved different means. Very few details are available. An airport employee contacted by AFP reported an attack carried out using two vehicle bombs, accompanied by gunfire. The airport was closed, he said.

At least 64 people, including 49 civilians and 15 soldiers, were killed Thursday between Gao and Timbuktu.

The UN mission (MINUSMA), pushed back from Mali by the ruling junta, has just left two camps near Timbuktu, Ber and Goundam, transferred to the Malian authorities. This takeover by the Malian state gave rise to fighting with the jihadists but also to clashes with the former Tuareg rebels.

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Timbuktu, with its tens of thousands of inhabitants on the borders of the Sahara, is one of the major cities in the north that fell into the hands of Tuareg rebels, then Salafists after the outbreak of the insurrection in 2012.

Tuareg-dominated groups signed a peace deal with the Malian state in 2015 as jihadists continued hostilities. The violence spread to the center and to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, killing thousands of people.

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