Militant attack on Mali military camp leaves 20 dead: army
Bamako, Jan 27 (AFP/APP): Twenty members of the security forces were killed on Sunday in a major assault by suspected militants at a military camp in Mali near the border with Mauritania.
The attack on the Sokolo camp around dawn left “20 dead and five wounded” and “four dead on the enemy’s side,” the army said updating the toll late Sunday.
The victims were buried with military honours at Sokolo, the Malian armed forces said on Twitter.
Sokolo is the last town before the Mauritanian border, near a forest considered a base for groups.
A local lawmaker said all those killed at Sokolo military camp were gendarmes, or paramilitary police officers.
“The terrorists arrived on motorcycles,” said the official, who asked not to be named for security reasons.
Sokolo resident Baba Gakou told AFP: “There were more than 100 attackers.
“They arrived at five in the morning. They cut off any withdrawal by the gendarmes.”
He added that the assailants left with all the weapons and vehicles at the camp.
“They picked up all their dead. They did not touch anyone in the village,” he told AFP.
A local humanitarian source who managed to enter the camp after the suspected militants had left, described the scene as “complete chaos”.
“It looked like the attackers knew what they were doing,” the source said.
The armed forces tweet said troops were combing the area backed by a military aircraft following the assault.
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