Al-Qaeda Affiliate Claims Attacks on Mali Military Positions

West Africa's al-Qaeda affiliate, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin, on Saturday claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on military positions in Mali and said it had seized control of at least three of them. Reuters could not independently verify the claim, which was distributed via the group's official communication channels.

Earlier this month, the same group claimed responsibility for an attack on the airport and military airbase in Niger's capital that the government said killed 11 members of the security forces. m. local time and lasted for over two hours. It was the second strike on the airport complex this year, after the region's Islamic State affiliate targeted the site in January.

The group is also active in Burkina Faso and Mali, where it staged attacks in April that hit the airport in the capital Bamako, killed the defense minister, and seized a string of army bases. Niger, like its neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, has struggled to contain attacks from jihadist groups that have killed thousands and displaced millions across the three countries.

The two main groups, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin and Islamic State Sahel Province, engaged in their first skirmishes in 2019 and have since clashed hundreds of times, resulting in more than 2,100 deaths, according to data from Armed Conflict Location & Event Data.