AFRICA/MALI - The attack on the UN base in Kidal and the bombing in Bamako committed by the same group

Monday, 9 March 2015

Bamako (Agenzia Fides) - "The attack against the MINUSMA base and the attack on the restaurant in Bamako were committed in all probability by the same group - Mokhtar Belmokhtar", says Fr. Edmond Dembele, Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference of Mali, to Agenzia Fides. After the attack on the night between 6 and 7 March in a restaurant in Bamako, the Malian capital, in which five people were killed (see Fides 07/03/2015), on Sunday, March 8 rockets hit the MINUSMA base (the UN military mission in Mali) in Kidal, in the north, killing two children and a peacekeeper from Chad.
"The attack was claimed by Bamako Belmokhtar and it is thought that the attack on the UN base in Kidal is the work of the same group", says Fr. Dembele. "The army of Mali is currently not deployed in Kidal and is controlled by the Tuareg rebel movement. MINUSMA is instead present. It is thought that the group of Belmokhtar wants to force the UN forces to leave the region in order to be free to subdue or at least to keep the trafficking of weapons and drugs that pass through the area", concluded the priest. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 09/03/2015)


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