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At least 18 people were killed and seven others were injured in an airstrike in northern Mali as the army mounted an attack targetting some armed members, the Associated Press reported, quoting a separatist group on Tuesday.
The Malian army bombed a market 50 km (30 miles) north of Lerneb, in the Timbuktu region, the Collective for the Defence of the Rights of the Azawad People, part of a Tuareg separatist coalition, told AP while criticising a “barbaric act from another age” and a “flagrant human rights violation.”
Meanwhile, Mali’s army issued a statement on social media platform X, where they confirmed the airstrike, but characterised it as targeting a “refuge” used by what they described as “terrorists.” According to the military, 11 militants were killed in the operation.
The strike is the latest in a series of military actions in Mali’s ongoing battle against insurgent groups operating across the region. For over a decade, Mali, along with neighboring countries Burkina Faso and Niger, has been embroiled in a violent insurgency by armed groups, including factions allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State.
