Al-Qaeda linked group in takes responsibility

A group linked to Al-Qaeda said that he had led a major attack on the Malian city of Boulikessi and took control of an army base.

More than 30 soldiers were killed in the attack on Sunday, according to sources cited by the reuters news agency, but this figure was not confirmed by the authorities.

On Monday, the same group, Jama’a Nusrat Ul-Islam Wa al-Muslimin (Jnim), said that he targeted the army in the historic city of Timbuktu, with residents pointing shots and explosions.

In a press release responding to the attack on Sunday, the Mali army said that it “reacted vigorously”, before “withdrawing” – suggesting a tactical retreat.

“Many men have fought, some until their last breath, to defend the Malian nation,” added the statement.

An anonymous local source told Reuters that Jnim had made many victims and “erased the camp”.

The attacks, the last sign of security which collapses in Mali and in the region in the broad sense of Sahel, intervened after the American command of Africa in the United States warned against the growing efforts of various Islamist militant groups which operate in the Sahel to access the coast of West Africa.

On Friday, during a press conference, the commander of the American command of Africa (AFROM), General Michael Langley, described the recent attacks in Nigeria, the widest of Sahel and the Lake Chad basin as deeply disturbing, warning that the access of groups to the coast would considerably strengthen their capacity for smuggling and trafficking in arms.

It is believed that more than 400 soldiers have been killed by activists since the beginning of the last month in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, reports Reuters.

Simon Ponsford additional report.