Bamako, Mali – (AFP) – Mali’s ruling junta on Thursday said it had arrested six “terrorists” over their alledged involvement in a jihadist massacre on the capital Bamako in September.
The attack targeted a military police training camp and airport killing 70 people and wounding 200, one of the highest tolls the country has suffered in recent years.
The operation, which dealt a forceful blow to the military junta, was claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM).
The army in a statement on Thursday reported “the arrest on November 17 and 18 of six members of a terrorist network involved in the September 17 attack in Bamako”.
“The individuals arrested are suspected of having facilitated the entry and set up of the terrorist commandos that led the attacks, of conducting surveillance missions over the sites to attack and of having provided logistical support to armed terrorist groups”, the statement added.
JNIM claimed that a few dozen of its fighters had killed and wounded “hundreds” from the opposing ranks, including members of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, an ally of the Malian government.
On its communication channels, JNIM said that 13 fighters had taken part in the attacks and that all those arrested by authorities were innocent.
The operation was the first of its kind in years to hit Bamako, which is normally spared the sort of attacks that occur almost daily in some parts of Mali.
The West African country has been ravaged since 2012 by different factions affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
The attacks came a day after junta-led Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso marked a year since the creation of their breakaway grouping, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
The three countries, which have been under military rule following a string of coups since 2020, have broken ties with former colonial ruler France and turned militarily and politically towards other partners including Russia.
Mali’s leaders launched an extensive military operation in the north of the country where armed separatist groups and jihadists have lost control of several areas since last year.
In July, however, the Malian army and its Russian allies suffered one of their biggest defeats.
Previously, French anti-jihadist troops, the United Nations stabilisation mission, MINUSMA, and European troops had contained the threat in the north.
But the Malian junta ordered them out, turning instead to Russia for support.
© Agence France-Presse
