BAMAKO, Dec 26, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The Malian army said Saturday it
killed around a dozen alleged jihadists when a military convoy was
attacked near the border with Burkina Faso.
The attack occurred on Thursday afternoon between Dinangourou and
Mondoro, the army said on Twitter.
“On the enemy’s side, around a dozen terrorists were killed,” but
the army suffered no losses, it said.
Mali has been struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency that
first emerged in the north of the country in 2012, and has since
spread to the centre of the country and neighbouring Burkina Faso and
Niger.
Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed in the
fighting to date, and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced
to flee their homes.
From 2015, violence on civilians moved to the volatile centre of
the country, starting with the Fulani community, which had become
associated with the jihadists after a firebrand Fulani preacher named
Amadou Koufa set up an armed group.
Last week, an exhaustive report into strife-torn Mali by UN
investigators said they had garnered evidence of war crimes committed
by the security forces and others, and of crimes against humanity by
jihadists and other armed groups.
The 338-page investigation by the International Commission of
Inquiry for Mali covers six years, from 2012 to 2018.