Two firefighters and three civilians were killed Monday night during an attack on a first aid post in Markacoungo, southeastern Mali, the Ministry of Security and Civil Protection announced Tuesday.
“On the night of January 2-3 (…) around 9:00 p.m., the Civil Protection roadside aid post in Markacoungo, on the Bamako-Ségou axis, was attacked by unidentified armed individuals,” he said. the ministry in a signed press release. by the deputy director general of Civil Protection Dramane Diallo, specifying that the balance was five dead, including two firefighters, and one wounded.
Authorities identified the two slain rescuers as Fire Sergeant Idrissa Dembele and Firefighter Tieba Coulibaly. Military ceremonies and funerals for the two men are scheduled for Wednesday.
A decade of jihadist insurgency
“All measures are taken by the defense and security forces to search for, identify and arrest the perpetrators of this despicable act so that they answer for their actions,” adds the press release, which “invites the population to work More with your defense and security. cash”.
Attacks are rare in the area where Monday night’s attack occurred. But Mali, a landlocked country in the Sahel, has been fighting a jihadist insurgency for a decade that has spread to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso.
In the three countries, thousands of civilians, police officers and soldiers perished, and more than two million people had to flee their homes. The junta in power since 2020 has brought in Russians whom it presents as military instructors who have come to help fight the jihadists.
Westerners describe these military instructors as mercenaries from the Wagner paramilitary group, which is close to the Kremlin.
As violence rages in the center, north and east of the country, the question of the future of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali arises. In December, Germany became the seventh country to decide to end or suspend its participation in the mission.
Source: BFM TV
