Mali Neutralises Dawn Terror Attack

Mali on Tuesday woke up to a terror attack claimed by al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM). The group targeted the airport and a gendarmerie training school in Bamako, releasing video showing them setting fire to a plane.

Mali’s army chief of staff Oumar Diarra announced the situation was under control. All was quiet by mid afternoon - with citizens going about their business. Some of the attackers were eliminated, others arrested. Mali’s side also reportedly suffered casualties

The attack on Bamako comes as a shock as the capital has been spared much of the violence that has engulfed other parts of the country and the wider Sahel region. Starting 2012, rebels who had been armed and funded by NATO to overthrow Libya’s Gaddafi, began trickling south to the Sahel, which soon became the global epicentre of terrorism. Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 47% of global terrorism deaths in 2023, more than South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa combined.