Second-Deadliest Militant Attack in Mali Kills 25 Soldiers

(Bloomberg) -- Mali’s government said 25 soldiers were killed in a gun battle with militants who broke into an army base near the border with Burkina Faso, the second-deadliest attack on the military since jihadists tried to seize the north of the country in 2012.

“During heavy gunfire from the terrorists our forces succeeded in retaking the base” in the town of Boulkessi, government spokesman Yaya Sangare said in a statement Wednesday. Air strikes killed at least 15 militants and several buildings were destroyed, he said. Malian and French troops pursued the assailants, he said.

The base hosts members of the G5 Sahel, a 5,000-strong West African force that’s tasked with stopping Islamist insurgents in the Sahel region from carrying out cross-border attacks. In 2017, affiliates of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb blew up a vehicle inside a military camp in the town of Gao, killing more than 80 people.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katarina Hoije in Abidjan at khoije@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Jacqueline Mackenzie

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.