MALI- Military sources said on Sunday that 12 civilians were killed in northern Mali in an attack on a market that also involved the shooting of a Malian soldier.
The attack took place on Saturday in a town Boulekessi near the border with Burkina Faso.
A military source from the joint forces from five Sahel countries told AFP, “Malian troops under the G5 Sahel command are at the centre of this incident,”
“One of the soldiers had been attacked by an armed man at the market in Boulekessi. Afterwards, in circumstances not yet clear, at least 12 civilians at the site were killed,” the source said.
The Malian source added that the information come to them late because there is difficulty to contact the region by phone and that an investigation was under way “to find out exactly how many civilians were killed and who shot the soldier.”
When AFP contacted a former Malian minister, who comes from the region, the former minister said that witnesses had claimed the incident was due to military “blunders” and that “more than 15 civilians were killed”.
The ex-minister said, “According to two witnesses, an armed man shot a Malian soldier who was now fighting for his life,” the ex-minister said, adding that he was waiting for confirmation of the details of the incident.”
Photo Credit- Free Press Journal
Leave a Reply