Bringing the Fight Home

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Fighters from an al Qaeda-linked group attacked a military police training school and an airbase in Bamako city early Tuesday, an assault that observers said marks the first time in nine years that jihadist insurgents have brought Mali’s 12-year conflict to the capital, the New York Times reported.

Witnesses and military junta officials reported gunfire and explosions in parts of the city in the early morning, with black smoke rising from Bamako’s airport. One official confirmed the temporary closure of the airport, not specifying when it would reopen.

Junta authorities confirmed that security forces were killed or injured during the raid, but did not elaborate. They added that gunmen targeted the military police school in Faladié toward an airbase camp south of Bamako’s airport.

Authorities said the situation was under control by 9 a.m. local time and blamed the attack on a “group of terrorists.”

Meanwhile, the al Qaeda-affiliated group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to France 24.

In a statement, the JNIM said they were conducting a “special operation” targeting the military airport and the Malian gendarmerie training center. The jihadist group added that it caused “huge human and material losses and the destruction of several military aircraft.”

The Bamako assault highlights a major escalation in Mali’s conflict against jihadist and separatist groups that began in 2012. The fighting, until now, has been mainly concentrated in the country’s north and central regions.

The last significant jihadist attack in Bamako took place in 2015, when militants stormed the Radisson Blu Hotel and killed 20 people.

Mali has been ruled by a military junta since two coups in 2020 and 2021. Junta leader Col. Assimi Goïta has vowed to regain control of the entire country – militants control large swathes of the countryside – and has shifted Mali’s long-standing alliance with European powers and former colonial ruler France in favor of Russia.

Tuesday’s attack occurred a day after the foreign ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger met in Bamako to celebrate the first anniversary of their alliance.

All three nations are ruled by military juntas and have distanced themselves from the regional bloc, ECOWAS, that they had been part of until recently.