Mali: Capital under control after rebel attack

Mali said on Tuesday the capital Bamako was under control after insurgents attacked a gendarmerie training school and other areas before dawn, firing shots that echoed across the city.

“Early this morning, a group of terrorists attempted to enter the Faladie gendarmerie school. Clean-up operations are currently underway,” the army said in a statement.

Residents were asked to avoid the area and await further official announcements.

The military government said that “some sensitive points in the capital” had been attacked, including the gendarmerie school.

It was said that the army had pushed back the “terrorists” responsible for the attack and asked civilians to go about their daily business.

The gendarmerie school is located in Faladie, a district on the southeastern outskirts of Bamako, near the main international airport. Reuters heard the gunshots before sunrise in the Banankabougou district near Faladie. People heading to the mosque for morning prayers turned back when shots rang out.

The shooting started at around 05:30 GMT. Some residents said it came from the direction of the airport, while others said it came from near the gendarmerie.

For security reasons, shots were heard in several parts of the city, including near the main airport.

Another security source said the airport had been closed.

Mali is one of several West African countries battling an Islamist insurgency that began in Mali's arid north in 2012 and has since spread across the Sahel and, more recently, to northern coastal countries.

Thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the region as militants, some with links to al-Qaeda and Islamic State, advance and military attempts to push them back. Governments and fighters have been accused of violence against civilians.

Frustration with authorities for failing to restore security contributed to two coup attempts in Mali in 2020 and 2021, followed by two in neighboring Burkina Faso and one in Niger.

But jihadist attacks have increased despite the juntas' promises to improve security, in part by replacing alliances with Western countries with Russian support, including mercenaries from the Russian private army Wagner.

Experienced Wagner fighters were killed at the end of July in fighting near the Algerian border between Tuareg rebels and the Malian army, which suffered heavy losses and was ambushed by jihadists during its retreat.

However, it is rare for insurgents to strike in the capital. In 2015, gunmen carried out a dawn raid on the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, killing 20 people.

• 
  

  Reuters

  Reuters is a news agency of the Thomson Reuters Corporation founded in 1851 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada. As one of the world's largest news services, it supplies more than 1,000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters worldwide with financial news and international reporting in over 16 languages.