TIMBUKTU, (AA): At least 10 Malian soldiers were killed on Monday in an attack on a National Guard base, local security sources told Anadolu Agency.
According to the sources, who requested anonymity, at least 10 unidentified attackers assaulted the camp – located in Mali’s Gouma-Rharous commune, some 160 kilometers east of Timbuktu – at about 4 a.m. local time.
The attack comes one day after the government announced that two soldiers had been killed when a military convoy was ambushed near the Nampalari commune in the country’s south-central Segou region.
Minusma, the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Mali, condemned the attacks and called for the terms of a recent cease-fire to be respected.
On June 20, the government and a Tuareg insurgent group – considered the country’s largest rebel organization – signed a peace deal in which the latter promised to withdraw from the town of Menaka in the country’s eastern Gao region.
In July, six UN peacekeepers were killed in Timuktu – also by unknown attackers.
Violence erupted in Mali in 2012 following a failed coup attempt and a Tuareg rebellion that allowed Al-Qaeda-linked militants to take over the northern half of the country.
