Terrorists kill 42 Soldiers in fresh attack

Terrorists operating in Mali, have reportedly mowed down 42 soldiers in a sophisticated weekend attack, aimed at further driving their jihadist campaigns in the West African country.

Described as one of the bloodiest in recent time, the jihadists, reportedly employed drones and artillery.

The Malian conflict, has remained one of the intractable campaigns in the Sahel region, with weapons from Libya, whose strong leader, Muommer Gadaffi was killed in a campaign backed by Western nations, flowing freely into the wrong hands inthe country.

Most of the countries in West Africa, have not been spared from the ugly situation, with Nigerian President, Muhammdu Buhari, on many occasions in the past, blaming the bloody campaigns in the country, on the situation, outside other countries like Burkina Faso and Niger, also caught in the web of the crises.

While acknowledging the figure, the Malian government, said in a statement that 22 soldiers were injured while 37 of the terrorists were “neutralised,” during the incident, which reportedly occurred Sunday in the town of Tessit, the point where the three former French colony borders, Burkina Faso and Niger.

On Monday, the army had said 17 soldiers and four civilians died.

Relatives of the victims, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of the civilians were elected officials.

Monday’s statement blamed the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), saying its members had deployed “drone and artillery support and [used] explosives and an explosives-laden vehicle.”

Previous attacks
The last time Mali’s armed forces sustained such losses was in a string of attacks in the same region in late 2019 and early 2020. Hundreds of soldiers were killed in assaults on nearly a dozen bases, typically carried out by highly mobile fighters on motorbikes.

The raids prompted the Malian, Nigerien and Burkinabe forces to fall back from forward bases and hunker down in better-defended locations.

In January 2020, France and its Sahel allies agreed on a push against the ISGS at a summit in Pau, southwestern France.

Several of its leaders were targeted and killed, including its founder, Abu Walid Al-Sahraoui, but local people say the group has continued to recruit and carry out its operations.

Tessit is one of the hot spots in the three-border area.

The ISGS is fighting for control of the strategic, gold-rich area against an al-Qaida-linked alliance, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM).

In March 2021, 33 soldiers were killed in an ISGS-claimed ambush as units were being rotated, and in February this year, around 40 civilians, suspected by the ISGS of being in league with al-Qaida, were massacred.

Mobile phone connections to the area have been frequently cut over the last few years and physical access is hard, especially during the midyear rainy season.

Thousands have fled Tessit to the nearest large town, Gao, which is about 150 kilometers (90 miles) to the north.

Across the Sahel, the jihadi campaign has claimed thousands of lives and forced more than 2 million to flee their homes.

Sporadic cross-border attacks have also occurred in Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin to the south, amplifying fears of a jihadist push toward the Gulf of Guinea.