Mali reports fresh terrorist attacks on major cities

The Malian army said Saturday that several towns across the north of the country, including the major cities of Gao and Sévaré, were targeted by terrorist attacks.

The fighting, which started around 5:00 am (0500 GMT), came just over two months after an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group in collaboration with Tuareg-led separatists staged attacks in which the country's defence minister was killed.

The new attacks were reported in the northern towns of Gao, Anefis and Aguelhok, plus the central town of Sevare and a prison at Kenieroba near the capital, Bamako.

An Anefis resident told AFP that "armed groups are in the town, but the army is still putting up resistance. The camp (there) has not yet fallen".

Army’s presence

The towns of Anefis and Aguelhok are the last remaining locations where Mali's army maintains a presence in the northern Kidal region, following the April attacks.

In Gao, also in the north, residents told AFP of gunfire and "loud blasts" near an army camp.

In the central town of Sevare, "explosions rang out... around 5:00 am, though their origin is not yet known. Shortly thereafter, several aircraft were spotted flying over the area", a security source told AFP.

The Kenieroba prison complex, where terrorists and others are held, was also under attack some 70 kilometres (40 miles) southwest of Bamako.

‘Under our beds’

"We are under our beds, the gunfire continues," one prisoner told AFP, before communications seemed to be cut off.

The Kenieroba Central Detention Center is the largest modern penal facility in Mali, with a more than 2,500-prisoner capacity.

The government led by Assimi Goita is battling attacks by the West Africa affiliates of Al-Qaeda and the Daesh terror groups. It is also grappling with a much longer history of Tuareg-led separatism in the north.