Four Malian troops were killed in separate suspected jihadist attacks Monday, the army said, two in the east and two in the country’s center.
In central Boni, the army said it “recorded two dead and seven wounded” following an ambush while 13 attackers were killed and two “terrorists” arrested, the statement said.
In Tessit, close to the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, there were “two dead and 10 wounded” after an attack on an outpost.
The military said it “vigorously repelled the attack.”
“Nine dead (attackers) were counted on the spot and several wounded terrorists were intercepted and annihilated by an aerial intervention,” it added.
“The sweep continues at full speed to clear these sectors.”
Two-thirds of Mali’s territory is beyond the control of the state.
The spread of jihadists, affiliated with al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, is beginning to reach further south, into Ivory Coast and Benin
Jihadist activities, combined with communal violence, crime, and army abuses, have resulted in thousands of civilian and military deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons.
The Malian army has claimed to have killed dozens of jihadists in recent months.
A recent statement said that “fear (had) changed sides, the enemy is on the run towards the borders or hiding among the population.”
