Al-Qaeda affiliate attack in Mali's capital claims at least 70 lives

An elaborate attack by an Al Qaeda affiliate in Mali's capital this week killed some 70 people, diplomatic and security sources said on Thursday, while the government offered no figures on casualties.

Militants attacked an elite police training academy and the airport on Tuesday, demonstrating their ability to strike at the heart of Mali's capital. The country is fighting an insurgency that took root over a decade ago in its arid north.

The scale and complexity of the attacks further undermines the ruling junta's claims that security has improved since it booted out French and US forces, and turned to Russia instead for security.

Two diplomats serving in the region, including one based in Bamako, said the death toll was believed to be in the 70s. Reuters could not independently verify the numbers.

A third diplomat based in the region said hundreds were believed dead and wounded, and hospitals had run out of beds to treat survivors.

Since the conflict in Mali erupted, violence has spread to neighbours in the Sahel region and reached the north of coastal countries. Thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the region, and some fighters are allied with Al Qaeda or Islamic State.

Tuesday's attack was claimed by Al Qaeda affiliate Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM).

A month ago, an al Qaeda affiliate said it killed 50 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 10 Malian soldiers in an ambush in Mali's northern Kidal region near the border with Algeria on Saturday, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

The ambush occurred on the same day a Tuareg rebel movement known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) said it had killed and injured dozens of Malian soldiers and Wagner mercenaries during days of fighting at the border town of Tinzaouaten.

The Tuareg are an ethnic group who inhabit the Sahara region, including parts of northern Mali. Many of them feel marginalised by the Malian government.

Tuareg-led separatists launched a rebellion in 2012 that was pushed back into Mali's arid north and later hijacked by Islamist militant groups.

The death toll is a significant blow, amounting to what appears to be Wagner's heaviest defeat since it stepped in two years ago to help Mali's junta fight Islamist groups that have been waging insurgencies across the Sahel region since 2012.

Mali, where the army seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, has said Russian forces there are not Wagner mercenaries but trainers helping local troops with equipment bought from Russia.

However, Wagner said in a rare statement on Monday that its fighters battled alongside Malian soldiers from July 22-27 near Tinzaouaten and suffered heavy losses, including the death of their commander Sergei Shevchenko.

Mali's army said in a statement on Monday that it had started a "stabilisation operation" in the rebel-plagued area on July 19 and launched an attack on July 25.