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Report
Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists attack Bamako as Malian troops battle violent Islamist insurgency in north
FRANCE 24 English
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9/19/2024
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00:00
An uneasy calm in Bamako, one day after the first insurgent attack on Mali's capital in
00:07
years.
00:08
The ruling junta claims to have repelled the assault by al-Qaida affiliated militants.
00:13
Jamaat Nusrat claims to have taken out six military aircraft.
00:19
Clarisse Fortunet has the story.
00:23
The first gunshots were heard in the early hours of the morning.
00:31
A simultaneous attack in two places.
00:34
The gendarmerie school in the Falale district and a military zone near Bamako airport.
00:40
A group affiliated to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attack, asserting to have caused enormous
00:46
losses of life and property.
00:49
The Malian army did not give details of any casualties, but tried to reassure the population.
00:55
State television broadcast images of the alleged assailants.
00:58
I really wanted to reassure the Malian people that they can go about their business freely.
01:03
The situation has been taken under control by the Malian armed forces.
01:07
The terrorists who were infiltrated have been neutralised.
01:09
But a sense of chaos seems to have sweeping through the capital.
01:13
Videos circulating on social networks showed a shard body of a man.
01:17
He was allegedly lynched by the crowd, who accused him of being a terrorist.
01:24
Since 6am people have been mobilised.
01:26
People are anxious.
01:27
I came here at 9am and found many people in the population has been very supportive of
01:31
the police.
01:32
They were even the ones who apprehended many of the attackers.
01:37
The army is calling on the population to avoid confusion in order to prevent reprisals against
01:42
certain communities.
01:44
At a time when certain regions of Mali are still the scene of almost daily attacks, the
01:49
capital had been spared until now, since an attack on a hotel in 2016.
01:56
And for more, we turn to security analyst and consultant Niagare Bagarko.
01:59
Thank you for being with us here on France 24.
02:03
We've been trying to piece together and speak with people in Bamako this Wednesday.
02:10
There's a kind of fog of war when it comes to what happened.
02:14
Exactly.
02:15
It's a common view when you are talking to people based in Bamako to say, but you know,
02:22
it seems that it was only a small incident and that the military have been able to stop
02:29
the attack.
02:31
Everything is safe now and you can see that the airport is now reopened.
02:37
So there are, in fact, not kind of a panic more generally.
02:45
We cannot consider that the population at large is frightened by what we've seen on
02:52
the images that you are showing presently.
02:56
Would you qualify this as the most danger Bamako has been in since 2012, 2013?
03:04
Since 2015, I would say, and 2016, because in 2015, it is when the attack on the Radisson
03:15
Blue happened.
03:16
It was a major terror attack, but the big difference was that civilians were targeted
03:22
at the time.
03:23
Now, it's only been directed to military.
03:30
First students in the gendarmerie school at first, and then at the airport, because it
03:38
seems that the Jihadi have been able to come into the military part of the airport.
03:44
Because in Bamako, you have first the civilian part, the international airport, but you also
03:49
have this part, which is a military base.
03:53
And then it seems that they also have been able to put fire to the presidential aircraft,
04:01
which is something rather amazing.
04:05
It's been talked about a lot on social media.
04:07
So there's the spin and the counter spin.
04:10
There's what the junta has been saying and what the insurgents have been saying.
04:13
They claim to have taken out six military aircraft.
04:16
They also claim to have inflicted casualties upon Russian mercenaries.
04:22
We don't have any confirmation.
04:24
No, there is no confirmation because the Malian military has not given any count of the number
04:32
of people killed.
04:33
They said that, yes, there have been people who died, but we definitely don't know how
04:39
many.
04:40
But on the part of the Jihadi, they are saying that they have been able also to attack drones,
04:48
which were based in this military part of the airport.
04:54
And they are also saying that hundreds of Malian and Russian soldiers were killed.
05:01
But today, we have absolutely no images.
05:05
But it can happen that they will show them afterwards.
05:09
And it happens very often that we can see what they have been able to achieve later
05:16
a long time ago, rather long time ago, after the attack itself.
05:20
Is there, in your view, right now, the junta in Mali, is it in the same position that the
05:28
junta is in in Burkina Faso, which is on the back foot?
05:33
Or do they have a plan?
05:35
Is it different?
05:36
No, I think it is completely different because, you know, one of the major strategic objectives
05:42
of the Malian authority is to address the autonomous insurgency in the northern part
05:49
of the country.
05:50
And a lot of military troops and equipment are deployed in the northern part of Mali.
05:59
And a very bloody battle happened in July, where lots of Malian soldiers and Russian
06:08
as well have been killed.
06:09
And this has not been denied by the authorities.
06:13
It was in Tino Wazen.
06:15
But the question is, are most of the Malian soldiers and Russians deployed in the northern
06:23
part of the country?
06:25
And is the capital enough secured with enough troops, et cetera?
06:31
But it seems that the authorities have been able to reassure the population.
06:36
And today, it is really very difficult to know what really happened yesterday.
06:42
Nnegeri Bakayoko, many thanks for being with us here on France 24.
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