Global Courant 2023-04-20 18:40:04
Documentation from the Mali presidency identified four victims in the ambush, including the chief of staff of the Mali junta, a security guard, a contractor and a driver.
Militants seized areas of land along the Sahel, a classification used for a group of countries consisting of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. (Reuters Archive)
According to a document from the Mali presidency, the chief of staff of the Mali junta was killed along with three others during an attack in an area known for extremist rebels.
Oumar Traore, the chief of staff of Colonel Assimi Goita, was killed in an ambush near the Mauritanian border on Tuesday, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital, Bamako, the government said on Thursday.
Traore was part of an official delegation to the area near the town of Nara and the Wagadou forest to investigate possible drilling sites for the local community.
The document identifies three other victims, including a security guard, a contractor, and a driver. Another driver said missing.
The attack has not yet been claimed.
Traore will be buried on Thursday in Kati, a garrison town near the capital, Bamako, according to the document.
READ MORE: Dozens of civilians killed as ISIS and al-Qaeda militants clash in Mali
ongoing militant insurgency
Last January, unidentified attackers in eastern Mali kidnapped a medical doctor working for the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN agency said in a statement.
Dr Mahamadou Diawara was taken from his car in the town of Menaka in the eastern region, where militant groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and ISIS operate.
The attackers also attacked his driver, but left him behind.
Mali is battling a widespread militant insurgency that kidnapped a Tuareg rebellion in the north in 2012. Tuaregs form the majority ethnic group in northeastern Mali’s Kidal District.
Since 2020, it is currently led by a military junta led by Colonel Assimi Goita. Under international pressure, he has pledged to respect the return to democracy by March 2024.
Militants seized areas of land along the Sahel, a classification used for a group of countries consisting of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
Despite costly international efforts to suppress it, thousands of people have been killed and close to 2 million displaced.
READ MORE: Nearly one million children face ‘serious waste’ in Africa’s Sahel
Source: AFP
