Gunmen attack army base in Mali killing 16Gunmen attacked and briefly seized a Malian army base overnight, killing at least 16 soldiers and destroying five vehicles in central Mali's Mopti region, two local councillors in the area where the attack happened said on Sunday.The base is in the village of Dioura, the mayor of the nearest town Kareri, Youssouf Coulibaly, told Reuters by telephone from inside it. Central Mali has in the past few years been overrun by jihadists with links to Al Qaeda. Army spokesman Colonel Diarran Kone confirmed the attack but gave no further details. Central Mali is the locus of the Macina Liberation Front, led by Salafist preacher and militant leader Amadou Koufa. But at the end of last month Koufa appeared in a new propaganda video mocking French and Malian forces.

Source: Standard Digital March 17, 2019 11:15 UTC