Suspected jihadists kill six Mali soldiers in twin attacks

Twin attacks on the army in central Mali overnight killed six soldiers, the military said Sunday.

Some 30 suspected jihadists were also left dead in response. A number of wounded soldiers were evacuated by helicopter, a medical source said.

The attacks occurred near the border with Burkina Faso at army positions that have been targetted in the past, with a deadly Islamist offensive having begun in northern Mali in 2012 before spreading elsewhere.

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"The provisional toll is six dead and 18 wounded" among the soldiers, the army said in a statement, adding that the attacks prompted a response which left "around 30 dead on the terrorist side".

Some 40 motorcycles and a large amount of military gear were seized from the attackers. The raids occurred at Boulkessy and Mondoro in the violence-wracked centre of the Sahel country.

The "complex and simultaneous" attacks occurred at around 3:30 am (0330 GMT), the army said, with a local official in Mondoro estimating that the fighting continued for around an hour.

On Thursday, three other Malian soldiers were killed in a bomb blast in the Mondoro area.

Violence linked to jihadist and separatist insurrections in Mali since 2012 have killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands displaced, with the country's centre having become one of the main flashpoints.

In September 2019, the same army positions were targeted in one of the deadliest attacks to hit Mali since 2012, with some 50 soldiers killed.

That double attack was later claimed by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel region affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

Mali has, meanwhile, received support in its fight against the jihadists from France's Barkhane force, which numbers 5,100 troops spread across the arid Sahel region.

The UN has also deployed to Mali its 13,000-strong MINUSMA peacekeeping force, which has suffered 146 hostile deaths since it was first established in 2013.