At least 5 killed in Mali attack: military, locals

• Attack on checkpoint in southeast Mali kills at least five.
• Malian army was conducting an operation in the Koutiala.
• Country has been hit by jihadist insurgency since 2012.

An attack at a checkpoint in southeast Mali on Saturday killed at least five people, including customs officers and civilians, local and military sources said.

While a military source told AFP a “terrorist attack” had killed seven civilians and customs officers at the Koutiala checkpoint, a local councilor put the death toll at five.

Neither source provided the breakdown of the civilian and customs officers involved.

“The enemies also suffered losses,” the military source said, adding the situation was currently under control.

Read more: Red Cross says two employees killed in Mali attack

At the time of the attack, the Malian army was conducting an operation in the Koutiala area, near the border with Burkina Faso.

Since 2012, Mali has been rocked by a jihadist insurgency led by groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State group.

The violence began in the north, then later spread to the center and to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. Inter-communal and criminal violence is also common.

The country has been run by a military junta since August 2020, when colonels angered at failures to roll back the jihadists toppled the country’s elected leader, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

They then staged a second de-facto coup in May 2021, but reiterated a vow to hand back control by February 2022. That timeline was recently pushed back by two years.

Read more: UN peacekeeper killed in Mali ‘terrorist’ attack