BAMAKO, Mali: The Al-Qaeda -linked Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin militant group released videos of dozens of Malian soldiers it said were captured in combat and claimed that more than 100 others were killed in the attack earlier this month on an army camp in central Mali.
The Associated Press could not immediately verify the numbers and the spokesperson for the Malian army, Col.-Maj. Bakary Bocar Maiga, declined to comment. If true, it would make the Sept. 10 attack one of the deadliest in the group’s history.
The attack comes as the junta that has ruled the country since a 2021 coup prepares to celebrate Independence Day on Sept. 22.
The Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, said in a statement Friday night that its “fighters were able to neutralize 150 members of the Malian army, including two colonels and one captain, and capture 93 others.” The statement was made on its online propaganda channel, Az-Zallaqa.
The Malian army announced in a statement last week that “the preliminary toll from the operations indicates that several dozen terrorists have been neutralized, along with numerous motorcycles and several pickup trucks destroyed.”
“This is very concerning to the Malian army as well as to their Russian partners because of the significance of the attacks,” said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Rabat, Morocco-based think tank, Policy Center for the New South. “So if they don’t want to communicate exactly what happened, because it will send a signal not to the population, but to the wider audience that the Malian army and the Russian forces are incapable of protecting major bases.”
Along with Mali, neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso have been battling militants. Following military coups, the juntas in the three countries turned from Western allies to Russia for help combating militants.
But according to analysts, the security situation has worsened, with a record number of militant attacks. Government forces and Russian fighters have also been accused by Rights Group of killing civilians they suspect of collaborating with militants.
The attack is “significant in terms of the morale … as well as in terms of the equipment that the group JNIM has seized,” said Lyammouri of Sept. 10 attack.
JNIM is the most potent of the armed groups in the Sahel region and one of the deadliest local affiliates of Al-Qaeda globally, according to researchers. It was formed in 2017 after the merger of four separate Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Mali, creating one bigger entity.
One of its stated goals was to drive out French forces which, at the time, were helping Malian forces to fight militants. It operates across much of Mali in the north, south, west and central axis. Last year, it imposed a blockade on fuel imports into the country, disrupting fuel supplies to the capital Bamako.