Whoever is funding and equipping these jihadis is making them a more formidable force than the national militaries of several West African countries.
“Mali raises death toll in suspected Islamist attack to 42 soldiers,” by Souleymane Ag Anara, Business Day, August 11, 2022:
Bamako — Mali’s government blamed an Islamic State affiliate for Sunday’s attack near the southern town of Tessit and raised the death toll to 42 soldiers.
It was one of the deadliest attacks in recent years for the Malian army, which has been battling a decade-long insurgency by militant groups that have spread across West Africa’s Sahel region.
“The Malian army units of Tessit … reacted vigorously to a complex and co-ordinated attack by armed terrorist groups, presumably from Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), characterised by the use of drones, explosives, car bombs, and artillery,” the government said in a statement.
Soldiers killed 37 combatants during several hours of heavy fighting, it added. The army had previously said that 17 soldiers had been killed in the attack and that nine had gone missing.
Tessit is in the south near the border with Burkina Faso and Niger. Burkina Faso’s military reported on Tuesday that 15 of its soldiers were killed in a double bomb attack….
