More than 70 killed in Mali attack: What happened, why it matters

An estimated 77 people have been killed in an attack on Mali’s capital, Bamako, according to the AFP news agency.

About 200 others were injured in the attack, which took place on Tuesday and caused hospitals to be overwhelmed with wounded patients, a diplomat who asked to remain anonymous told the news agency. It’s unclear how the victims were wounded; however, residents reported gunshots and explosions. There was also smoke from apparent fires coming from buildings.

Malian authorities closed Modibo Keita International Airport after the attack.

Mali’s military government downplayed the incident with officials stating the situation was “under control” and the attack had been repelled. Officials later admitted the military had suffered casualties.

State TV station ORTM showed images of about 20 suspects believed to have been involved in the attack wearing blindfolds and with their hands tied. It was reported they had been captured by the military. “The sweep continues,” army Chief of General Staff Oumar Diarra said.

What happened in the attack?

Malian authorities said an armed group attacked an elite military police training school in the Faladie district of Bamako as well as a military base close to the airport early on Tuesday.

Gunshots rang out in the city centre, and smoke billowed into the sky from what appeared to be fires the fighters had lit in buildings and other infrastructure, according to some accounts.

Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).

The group’s stated aims include to “remove oppression” and expel non-Muslim “occupiers”, referring to Western influence in the country, such as foreign troops stationed in Mali. It also operates in Burkina Faso and Niger.

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JNIM members appeared to have killed scores of Malian soldiers and Russian fighters from the Wagner mercenary group during the nine hours the attack is believed to have lasted for. The Wagner Group, now called Africa Corps, is deployed in the country to assist the government in repelling armed groups.

JNIM posted videos of the assault on social media sites. The clips showed fighters setting fire to a government airplane and firing on an plane owned by a United Nations aid organisation, the World Food Programme (WFP). Videos also showed dozens of apparently dead soldiers, including white soldiers presumed to be Russians.

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While JNIM claimed to have taken control of the airport and the surrounding area on Tuesday, the Malian authorities said on state broadcasting networks later in the day that the attack had been repelled.

JNIM claimed a few dozen of its members were killed during the assault and it had been able to wound hundreds of Malian soldiers and Russian fighters.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and confirmed that one UN staff member had been injured. The African Union, Senegal, France and the United Kingdom denounced the violence.

WFP spokesperson Djaounsede Madjiangar confirmed the damage to the aircraft he said was used to “transport aid workers and provide emergency humanitarian aid in remote areas of Mali”. The airplane was on the ground at the time and had no personnel in it.

Madjiangar said the attack “reduces our humanitarian response capacity”.

#Mali / #Bamako: Les terro-ristes au milieu des avions à l'aéroport Bamako Sénou. #SahelLeaks pic.twitter.com/jPniwYnoBM

— SahelLeaks (@SahelLeaks) September 17, 2024

Why is this attack significant?

The attack happened in Bamako, the capital and seat of the military government, and specifically targeted military bases. Such a high-profile attack on Bamako has not happened in years.

While Mali has been beset by violence from several armed groups since 2012, including JNIM and the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), it has been concentrated in the northern and central parts of the country, hundreds of kilometres from the southwestern capital.

The last time a high-profile attack was carried out in the city was in 2015 when fighters targeted foreigners at a nightclub in March and again at the Radisson Blu Hotel in November.

A civilian government was in power at the time, and French forces were assisting the army.

Five people were killed and nine injured in the nightclub attack. Twenty people were killed in the Radisson Blu attack.

Both attacks were carried out by the al-Mourabitoun armed group, which has now merged with the Ansar Dine and Macina Liberation Front groups to form JNIM.

A guest leaves the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako on November 21, 2015, after retrieving his belongings one day after a deadly attack [Issoufo Sanogo/AFP]

The groups have seized large swaths of land in central and northern parts of the country and tax civilians in occupied communities. Groups like JNIM also launch incursions into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Like Mali, the two countries have been ruled by their militaries since 2021.

How has violence by armed groups been countered before now?

France, a former ally of Bamako, deployed thousands of soldiers to Mali in 2013 and to neighbouring countries. In addition, the UN deployed the 11,000-man peacekeeping force MINUSMA (UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali). The forces together were able to seize territories from the armed groups and hold them, but attacks like those in 2015 persisted, causing general dissatisfaction among Malians.

In 2020, forces led by Colonel Assimi Goita seized power in a military coup while blaming the civilian government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita for not doing enough to ease the worsening insecurity caused by the armed groups.

When anti-French sentiment began to rise in the region around 2015, partly due to continued attacks by armed groups, Goita ordered French forces and MINUSMA to leave. The troops started withdrawing in 2022 and completed their exit by December last year.

Goita’s government has instead turned to Russia’s Wagner forces for support. There are now about 2,000 Wagner fighters in the country.

Although the Russians, along with Malian soldiers, have been accused of human rights violations, the collaboration has seen Mali regain some territory from armed groups, especially in the north, analysts said.

What other major losses have Malian troops experienced?

In August, Tuareg rebels who are nonideological groups and separate from JNIM and ISGS launched what experts are calling the most significant attack on the Russian mercenaries since they deployed in Mali in 2021.

Tuaregs have for decades resented Bamako for what they see as their marginalisation. Over the years, Tuareg factions have waged separatist wars, calling for an independent country called Azawad. It was the 2012 uprising of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad that prompted Bamako to turn to France and the UN for help.

An ambush claimed by members of the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) in the northern town of Tinzaouaten resulted in the killing of 47 Malian soldiers and 84 Russian fighters, according to rebel accounts on Telegram.

Mali’s government did not confirm any casualty figures. However, officials did confirm the army suffered “significant losses” and lost a helicopter.

After that attack, a Ukrainian government spokesperson claimed to have provided intelligence to the Tuareg groups to cause harm to Russian forces during the Russia-Ukraine war.

Analyst Liam Karr of the US-based conflict monitoring group Critical Threats told Al Jazeera that while the specifics of Ukraine’s help are unclear, it is unlikely to be on a large scale.

The Ukrainian government tried to backtrack on the claim after Mali and its allies in Niger cut diplomatic ties with Kyiv. Ukraine’s Senegal-based ambassador to French-speaking West African countries, Yurii Pyvovarov, no longer has relations with the two countries.

Although a French push helped see through a peace agreement and partial autonomy for the Tuaregs in 2015, the military government has torn up those deals since it came to power, preferring to take a hardline approach to the separatist movement and trying to regain control of the northern region of Kidal by force instead.

From left, the heads of state of the military governments of Mali, Colonel Assimi Goita; Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani; and Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore, at the first summit of the Alliance of Sahel States in Niamey, Niger, on July 6, 2024 [Mahamadou Hamidou/Reuters]

What is happening in the wider region?

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are all experiencing increasing levels of violence despite their military governments cutting ties with France and turning to Russian forces for support. The number of attacks involving armed groups increased by 46 percent from 2021 to 2023 across the three countries, causing thousands of civilian casualties. Liptako-Gourma, the region that links the three countries, is a particularly volatile hotspot.

The three countries broke away from the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) a year ago and have since formed a confederation – the Alliance of Sahel States. They promised to jointly fight the armed groups with the help of Wagner fighters.

An estimated 100 Russian fighters arrived in Burkina Faso in January. Niger received an unknown number of Russian units in April after it suspended an agreement with the United States military in March that allowed it to operate in Niger. The military government told the US to leave key military bases set up in the country to monitor activity by armed groups. The US exit became official in September.

Burkina Faso appears to be the worst hit with two-thirds of its territory now under the control of JNIM and other armed groups. More than 8,000 people were killed in the country in 2023, double the number killed in 2022, according to the conflict monitoring group ACLED.

In June, JNIM members attacked a military base in the northeastern town of Mansila, killing more than 100 soldiers.

Niger, which was becoming slightly more stable before its own military coup of July 2023, is now experiencing more deadly attacks from the ISIL affiliate in the Sahel, according to ACLED.