<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Forty-two Malian soldiers died in a sophisticated weekend attack by suspected extremists using drones and artillery, authorities said yesterday, the latest violent incident to rock the troubled Sahel country.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The toll is one of the bloodiest in Mali’s decade-long insurgency, which has spread from the north of the country to the centre and south and into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.</div><div><br></div><div>A document naming the dead was authenticated to AFP by several senior military officials, while the government later confirmed the toll in a statement that said 22 soldiers were injured and 37 “terrorists” were neutralised.</div><div><br></div><div>The attack occurred on Sunday in the town of Tessit, in the troubled “three-border” region where the frontiers of the three nations converge.</div><div><br></div><div>On Monday, the army had said 17 soldiers and four civilians had died.</div><div><br></div><div>Relatives of the victims, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that some of the civilians had been elected officials.</div><div><br></div><div>Monday’s statement pointed the finger of blame at the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), saying its members had deployed “drone and artillery support and (used) explosives and an explosives-laden vehicle”.</div><div><br></div><div>The last time Mali’s armed forces sustained such losses was in a string of attacks in the same region in late 2019 and early 2020.</div><div><br></div><div>Hundreds of soldiers were killed in assaults on nearly a dozen bases, typically carried out by highly mobile fighters on motorbikes.</div><div><br></div><div>The raids prompted the Malian, Nigerien and Burkinabe forces to fall back from forward bases and hunker down in better-defended locations.</div><div><br></div><div>In January 2020, France and its Sahel allies agreed on a push against the ISGS at a summit in Pau, southwestern France.</div><div><br></div><div>Several of its leaders were targeted and killed, including its founder, Abu Walid Al-Sahraoui, but local people say the group has continued to recruit and carry out its operations.</div><div><br></div><div>Tessit is one of the hotspots in the three-border area.</div><div><br></div><div>The ISGS is fighting for control of the strategic, gold-rich area against an Al-Qaeda-linked alliance, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM).</div><div><br></div><div>In March 2021, 33 soldiers were killed in an ISGS-claimed ambush as units were being rotated, and in February this year, around 40 civilians – suspected by the ISGS of being in league with Al-Qaeda – were massacred.</div><div><br></div><div>Mobile phone connections to the area have been frequently cut over the last few years and physical access is hard, especially during the mid-year rainy season.</div><div><br></div><div>Thousands have fled Tessit to the nearest large town, Gao, which is located some 150km to the north.</div><div><br></div><div>Across the Sahel, the extremist campaign has claimed thousands of lives and forced more than 2 million to flee their homes.</div><div><br></div><div>Sporadic cross-border attacks have also occurred in Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin to the south, amplifying fears of an extremist push towards the Gulf of Guinea. - AFP</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>