Mali: Dozens killed as rebels attack army camp, village

A local official reported that terrorists assaulted a military camp and a community in central Mali on Tuesday, killing about twenty troops and at least five civilians. Tuesday afternoon’s incident happened in a rural commune in the south-central Segou region of Mali. According to the official over the phone, armed attackers assaulted the town of Farabougou and an adjacent military base, shooting indiscriminately. The officer, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed that militants overran and destroyed the camp, killing about thirty soldiers. “There were many civilian and military victims,” he said, adding that the bodies of five villagers had been found and many more were injured. The aftermath is still being assessed, he said. One of the many nations in West Africa, Mali is grappling with a jihadist insurgency that began in its parched north following the 2012 hijacking of a Tuareg uprising by terrorists. Millions of people have been displaced and large areas of territory have been taken over by factions associated with the Islamic State and al Qaeda, causing thousands of deaths and spreading the bloodshed throughout the Sahel region south of the Sahara. (With agency inputs)