Jihadists and their separatist Tuareg allies hit Mali with fresh coordinated attacks Saturday, striking multiple towns and a prison, according to the army, residents and security sources.
The fighting, which started around 5:00 am (0500 GMT), came more than two months after the same groups staged attacks against the ruling junta in which the country’s defence minister was killed.
The attacks were reported in Gao, Anefis, Aguelhok and Sevare, as well as a prison in Kenieroba.
Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), an ethnic Tuareg separatist movement, told AFP that “several positions have fallen, but fighting is still underway inside the city” of Anefis.
A resident there contacted by AFP said that “armed groups are in the town, but the army is still putting up resistance. The camp (there) has not yet fallen”.
The northern towns of Anefis and Aguelhok are the last remaining locations where Mali’s army maintains a presence in the Kidal region, following the massive attacks of April 25 and 26.
In a major blow to the ruling military junta, the strategic northern Malian city of Kidal fell under the control of FLA fighters during the late-April offensives.
In Gao, in the north, residents contacted by AFP reported gunfire and “loud blasts” near an army camp.
In the central town of Sevare, “explosions rang out… around 5:00 am, though their origin is not yet known. Shortly thereafter, several aircraft were spotted flying over the area”, a security source told AFP.
The major Kenieroba prison complex, where jihadists, among others, are held, located a few dozen kilometres from the capital, Bamako, was also under attack.
“We are under our beds, the gunfire continues,” a prisoner told AFP.
