Militants on motorbikes kill 20 troops in Mali

Suspected Islamist militants have killed twenty members of Mali’s security forces in an attack on the Sokolo military camp on Sunday morning. 

Speaking to AFP, a news agency, an official told reporters that the gunmen arrived at the camp on motorbikes before killing gendarmes and paramilitary police. 

The army also confirmed that militants left a further five soldiers injured and damaged and stole military equipment. 

A witness described the scene as “complete chaos”. 

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the assault, but militants linked to Islamic State or al-Qaeda often carry out such attacks in Mali and the wider Sahel region. 

Last year, Islamist militants killed 24 soldiers in eastern Mali. Weeks earlier, 54 troops died in a similar attack. 

Mali has been torn apart by violence since 2012, when Islamist militants hijacked a separatist rebellion by the Tuareg people in the north of the country, seizing several cities.  

Malian forces were able to recapture the territory taken by the militants with the aid of France, which has 4,500 troops deployed in the region. The UN has 13,000 peacekeeping troops in the country. 

Since then, thousands of lives have been lost as Mali struggles to contain the insurgency. The conflict has now spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. 

France’s Foreign Minister, Florence Parly, is now heading to Washington in order to convince the US to continue its logistical backing of the French operation, providing drones, intelligence and transport. 

Photo credit: AFP