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French soldiers on patrol in northern Mali were the target of a "terrorist" attack in which four civilians were killed and dozens injured, including four soldiers, Malian and French officials said. The attack in Gao yesterday killed four civilians and injured 23 others in a car bomb attack.
In Paris last night, the French army chief told AFP that four soldiers of the Barkhane force in Mali had been wounded during the attack and that they had been killed. there were at least two dead civilians
. According to a Western military source, "some French soldiers with the Barkhane force leaving the city were ambushed by terrorists on the road to Bourem. Fatouma Wangara, a resident of Gao, said the French patrol was deliberately targeted by a car bomb
"An armored vehicle blocked the road and the car exploded," she said
of the Azawad Salvation Movement (MSA), an armed group of former Tuareg rebels who often operate alongside French and Malian forces in northern Mali, struck a mine in the village of Talataye in the Gao region.The attacks, which took place on Friday and Saturday following two others, have highlighted the fragility of the security situation in West Africa while it s & # 39; Prepares to hold elections on July 29. 19659002] The attacks of yesterday occurred while an African Union summit was opened in neighboring Mauritania, with security crises on the ground. continent, including unrest in the vast region of the S Ahel, top of the list.The Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, whose country is part of the G5 and hosts both … The summit of the African Union warned that the attack on Friday on the HQ of the Sahel Force had revealed the flaws of regional security.
He said that the explosion had "touched the heart" of the security of the region. the United Nations was "closed". "It was a message sent by the terrorists at this very moment when we organized ourselves to stabilize and secure our region," Aziz told France 24. "If the headquarters was attacked, that's it. because there are so many flaws we must repair if we want to bring stability to the Sahel. "Al-Qaeda-linked support group for Islam and Muslims, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, claimed the attack on Friday during a phone call to the Mauritanian press agency Al-Akhbar
. Their vehicle drove on a landmine in the central region of Mopti.
G5 targets 5,000 soldiers from five nations – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – but faces funding problems and accusations of
French President Emmanuel Macron will meet today G5 leaders in Nouakchott to focus on progress made by force.
The G5 operates alongside the 4,000 French troops in the troubled "trilateral" zone where Mali and Niger and Burkina Faso meet, as well as the peacekeeping operation of MINUSMA in Mali which has 12,000 members.
Mali votes on July 29 during a presidential election in which outgoing President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita will face more than a dozen challengers. Thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the opposition.
The unrest in Mali is the result of a Tuareg separatist uprising in 2012, which was exploited by jihadists to take control of large cities in the north
. chased in a military operation led by France launched in January 2013.
But large areas of the country remain out of control of foreign and Malian forces, which are frequently the target of attacks, despite a peace agreement signed with Tuareg leaders in mid-2015 to isolate the jihadists.
Violence is also prevalent in Burkina Faso and Niger
(This story was not edited by Business Standard staff and is generated automatically from a stream unionized.)
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