On Sunday 26th January 2020, 20 Malian soldiers were killed and 5 wounded in an attack by unknown armed men in central Mali.

The attack took place in Sokolo military camp in the Segou region, where armed fighters linked to al-Qaeda are known to operate. They entered the camp in Sokolo at about 05:00 GMT, opened fire, destroyed some structures and left soon after, said Balco Ba, a deputy administrator in the nearby town of Niono. All those killed have been confirmed to be gendarmes or paramilitary police.

Speculations have been made connecting the attack to the al-Qaeda terrorist group as Islamist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State operate in arid central and northern Mali and have used the area as a base from which to launch attacks on soldiers and civilians across neighbouring Burkina Faso, Niger and beyond.

Mali’s government has said there was significant material damage in the attack and that reinforcements have been dispatched. Souleymane Maiga, a resident of Sokolo, said the attackers temporarily had taken control of the camp.

Last year, 24 Malian soldiers were killed and 29 wounded when militants attacked a patrol in northern Mali in November 2019. 20 people were wounded earlier this month in the north, including 18 U.N. peacekeepers from Chad, in a rocket attack on a military base for U.N., French and Malian forces.

According to the Human Rights Watch report on Mali, “Mali’s human rights situation deteriorated in 2019 as hundreds of civilians were killed in numerous incidents by ethnic self-defense groups. Humanitarian agencies were attacked, largely by bandits, undermining their ability to deliver aid.”

To understand the root of the crisis in Mali, there is the need to revisit the events that took place in 2012. Mali has suffered violence since 2012 when Islamist militants took over a Tuareg separatist rebellion in the north and seized several cities. Malian forces managed to regain control of territory taken by militants with military help from France, which has 4,500 troops deployed in the region. The United Nations (UN) has 13,000 peacekeeping troops in Mali but thousands of lives have been lost as Mali struggles to contain the violence, which has spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger since new armed groups started spreading in other parts of the country.

There is also long-standing tension that has gotten worse over the years. The Dogon ethnic group members of Mali are of the claim that the Fulani group are linked to the Islamist group while the Fulani ethnic group claim that the Dogon group form militias to attack them.

So far, the government has tried to control the situation by seeking the help of UN troops, France and other neighbouring countries. However, there is a pressing need for better strategies geared towards tackling unemployment, climate change, human rights abuse and corruption in Mali.

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