BAMAKO, Mali (Tanakra News) — An al-Qaida-linked militant group carried out a wave of attacks across central Mali this week, seizing several military bases and killing dozens of Malian soldiers and Russian mercenaries, local officials and residents said Wednesday.
The insurgents, from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), said they stormed an army barracks and a Dozo militia base in the town of Farabougou and the nearby village of Biri Wiri in the Ségou region on Tuesday. Fierce clashes left heavy casualties, with dozens of Malian troops killed, according to residents. The militants looted weapons, ammunition and vehicles before withdrawing.
Hours later, the fighters overran another garrison jointly held by the Malian army and the Russian-affiliated Africa Corps in the Tidl area of Ségou. Local sources said the attack inflicted significant losses on both Malian soldiers and Russian contractors, with dozens reported dead. JNIM said it seized equipment before retreating.
The group also claimed responsibility for detonating a roadside bomb that destroyed a military vehicle carrying Malian and Russian personnel in Morga, in the Koulikoro region, killing and wounding several on board.
On Wednesday, JNIM said it launched an additional rocket attack on security forces in the Gabali area of the Tabnateh region. Casualty figures from that strike were not immediately confirmed.
Mali has faced escalating violence since 2012, when jihadist groups entrenched themselves in the Azawad and later spread into central regions. Russian mercenaries from the Africa Corps — formerly the Wagner Group — have been supporting Malian forces since the withdrawal of French troops in 2022. But analysts say militant groups have only grown stronger, carrying out increasingly complex operations and inflicting severe losses on the army and its allies.
