Bamako, Mali
Reuters
At least 12 civilians were killed by drone strikes around the town of Kidal in northern Mali on Tuesday, including on a base vacated days earlier by a United Nations peacekeeping mission, a local official and a rebel group said.
The strikes appear to be the first sign of conflict in Kidal, a stronghold of ethnic Tuareg rebels, since the UN left in a hurry on 31st October, part of its wider withdrawal from the West African country as security worsens.
Security experts warn the area could now become the epicentre of a war over the north as the rebels and the army seek to take areas that the UN vacates, further destabilising Mali, where Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State also roam.
A local official, Ahamoudane Ag Ikmasse, said between 12 and 15 civilian deaths had been reported on Tuesday’s strikes and that one of the drones fell near a school. A spokesperson of the rebel movement, the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), said 20 people died.
The rebel spokesperson blamed the army and Russian mercenaries that work with Mali’s military authorities.
“There were three drone strikes on the [former UN] base and one hit a group of children that were collecting objects from the camp,” Elmaouloud Ramadane said via telephone.
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He said a second fell near an airfield and struck civilians, while the third missed its target.
Mali’s army did not respond to requests for comment.
It released a statement on X later on Tuesday saying it had carried out strikes on the camp in Kidal and “neutralised” several pick-up trucks belonging to “terrorists”. It did not mention civilian casualties.
Violence in Mali has spiked since June when the military junta, which took power in a 2021 coup, ordered the UN’s decade-old peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, to leave.
The mission has until 31st December to depart and has already withdrawn over 6,000 of the near 14,000-strong force.
