Fourteen Malian soldiers were killed in a clash with jihadists this week, the army said Thursday, giving a new toll in an attack claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked group.
Fighting erupted when an army unit was hit by roadside bombs between the towns of Mopti and Segou in central Mali.
In a statement to AFP on Thursday, the army said 14 soldiers died and 11 were wounded, while 31 “terrorists” were killed.
On Wednesday, army and police officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 12 soldiers had died.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nasr al‑Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility for a two-part attack in the Mopti region, according to a statement authenticated by American NGO SITE, which specialises in monitoring radical groups.
The group said it had killed “five Wagner mercenaries and seven from the Malian army… wounding dozens of others”, after first killing and wounding “an unspecified number of Malian soldiers and Wagner mercenaries with a landmine”.
The JNIM statement also acknowledged the death of five of its fighters.
Mali is in the throes of a nearly 11-year-old security crisis triggered by a regional revolt in the north that developed into a full-blown jihadist insurgency.
Several countries have accused Mali’s ruling junta of using the services of the pro-Kremlin Wagner mercenary group, which Bamako denies.
Thousands have died and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, while discontent within the military at the mounting toll fuelled a coup in August 2020.
The insurgency spread to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015 and has been followed by sporadic attacks on countries to the south, along the Gulf of Guinea.