Mali announced that it had repelled an Islamist attack on a base in the city of San
The Malian military said it repelled an attack by Islamist militants on a military base in the city of San on Sunday and killed about 40 attackers. The group “Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin” (JNIM), linked to al-Qaeda, claims, however, that its fighters have taken control of the base, according to BBC News.
Lieutenant Colonel El-Umrani, commander of the 23rd Regiment at the San garrison, stated in a video address that the attack had been successfully repelled and that the base remains under army control. At the same time, the army acknowledged that its troops had to temporarily retreat but denied losing control of the facility.
According to witnesses quoted by the French broadcaster RFI, the battle began around 5:00 a.m. local time and lasted about two hours. The attackers arrived on motorcycles and on foot, and some of them, according to eyewitnesses, were dressed in military uniforms to infiltrate the base. One witness reported that the militants remained in the camp for some time before leaving. According to him, some of the attackers fled, while others hid in houses or headed into the forest.
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AFP, citing sources in security agencies and local residents, reported that at least 10 soldiers were killed in the clashes and that the attackers briefly seized the camp. According to the army, the attackers used drones, heavy machine guns, and armored vehicles to breach the base’s perimeter.
Mali has been plagued by armed insurgencies since 2012, and significant territories in the north and east of the country remain outside government control. In April, an alliance of jihadists and separatist rebels — the Azawad Liberation Front — carried out coordinated attacks in the north of the country, seeking to overthrow the military regime of General Assimi Goïta, who seized power in a 2020 coup.
