2016 Nampala attack
2016 Nampala attack | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of Mali War | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Mali | Katiba Macina ANSIPRJ | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Abou Yehiya[1] | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
unknown | unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
17 killed 35 wounded | 3 wounded (ANSIPRJ claim) |
- v
- t
- e
Tuareg rebellion (2012):
- 1st Ménaka
- 1st Aguelhok
- Tin-Hama
- In Emsal
- 1st Andéramboukane
- 1st Tessalit
- 1st Niafunké
- 1st Tinzaouaten
- Tinsalane
- 1st Goumakoura
- 1st Tessit
- Sudere
- 1st Kidal
- 1st Timbuktu
- 1st Gao
- 1st In-Delimane
- Tagarangabotte
- 2nd Ménaka
- Khalil
- In Arab
Foreign intervention:
- Operation Serval
- AFISMA
- Chadian military intervention
- EUTM
- MINUSMA
- Konna
- 2nd Gao
- Diabaly
- 3rd Gao
- 4th Gao
- Ifoghas
- Panther
- 5th Gao
- In Khalil
- Timetrine
- 1st Kidal attack
- Imenas
- Tin Keraten
- Tigharghâr
- 1st Djebok
- 2nd Timbuktu
- 6th Gao
- 3rd Timbuktu
- 2nd Kidal attack
- 1st Ber
- Hamakouladji
- 1st Anéfis
- 2nd Anéfis
- Fooïta
- Douaya
- 2nd Tessalit
- Amazragane
- 1st Araouane
- 3rd Kidal attack
2014
- Kondaoui
- Tamkoutat
- 1st Ametettai
- Dayet
- Inabohane and Ebahlal
- 2nd Kidal
- 2nd Aguelhok
- 3rd Anéfis
- 1st Tabankort
- 2nd Indelimane
- 2nd Ametettai
- N'Tillit
- 2nd Tabankort
2015
- 1st Nampala
- Ténenkou
- 3rd Tabankort
- Tabrichat
- Bamako restaurant
- 4th Kidal attack
- 1st Léré
- Tin Telout
- Nara
- Takoumbaout
- Sama Forest
- 1st Gourma-Rharous
- Sévaré hotel
- 4th Anéfis
- Tiébanda
- Bamako hotel
- 5th Kidal attack
- 1st Talahandak
2016
- Wanna
- 3rd Aguelhok
- Sévaré
- 2nd Nampala
- 3rd Kidal
- Touzik
- Adjlal
- 2nd Goumakoura
- Kazay-Kazay
2017
- 6th Gao
- 1st Boulikessi
- 2nd Gourma-Rharous
- Foulsaré Forest
- 1st Dogofry
- 1st Serma Forest
- Bintagoungou
- Kangaba
- Inkadogotane
- 2nd Djebok
- Takellote
- 4th Timbuktu
- Tin Biden
- 3rd Indelimane
2018
- 4th In-Delimane
- Youwarou
- Soumpi
- Inaghalawass
- 2nd Araouane
- Akabar
- 5th Timbuktu
- Aklaz and Awkassa
- 1st Talataye
- Tabarde
- 1st Boni
- Inabelbel
- Soumouni
- 2nd Dogofry
- Ndaki
- 2nd Ber
- Farimake
- Tinabaw and Tabangout-Tissalatatene
- Abanguilou
2019
- Koulogon
- 2nd Serma Forest
- Taghatert and West Inekar
- 4th Aguelhok
- Elakla
- Dialloubé
- Diankabou
- 1st Dioura
- Ogossagou
- Tiésaba-Bourgou
- Guiré
- Sobane Da
- Gangafani and Yoro
- Fafa
- 2nd Boulikessi
- 5th In-Delimane
- 4th Tabankort
- 3rd Ménaka
- 1st Wagadou Forest
2020
- Dioungani
- Sokolo
- 1st Tarkint
- 1st Bamba
- 2nd Talahandak
- Bouka Weré
- Bankass
- Coup
- 1st Farabougou
- Sokoura
- 3rd Boulikessi
- Tadamakat
- Niaki
2021
- Wedding airstrike
- Boulikessi and Mondoro
- 2nd Boni
- 2nd Tessit
- 5th Aguelhok
- Coup
- 2nd Tarkint
- Karou and Ouatagouna
- Dangarous Forest
- Nokara
- Bodio
- Mopti
2022
- Archam
- Danguèrè Wotoro
- Mondoro
- Ménaka
- 2nd Andéramboukane
- 3rd Tessit
- 2nd Talataye
- Tadjalalt and Haroum
- Moura
- Hombori
- Mopti Region
- Diallassagou
- Bandiagara
2023
- Markacoungo
- Diafarabé and Koumara
- Kani Bonzon
- 5th Timbuktu
- 3rd Ber
- Tombouctou and Bamba
- Bourem
- 2nd Léré
- 2nd Dioura
- 2nd Bamba
- Kidal Region
- 4th Kidal
- 2nd Niafunké
- Labbezanga
- 2nd Farabougou
2024
- Kwala
- Douna
- 2nd Wagadou Forest
- Mourdiah
- Abeïbara
- Djiguibombo
- 2nd Tinzaouaten
The 2016 Nampala attack was an armed assault against a Malian Army base in the Niono Cercle subdivision of the Ségou Region of Mali on 19 July 2016, that left at least 17 government soldiers dead and 35 others injured. The Katiba Macina, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the ethnic Fula (or Fulani[2]) militant group National Alliance for the Protection of Fulani Identity and the Restoration of Justice (ANSIPRJ) claimed joint responsibility.[3][4][5][6]
Background
Following the 2011 Libyan Civil War, Tuaregs fighting in the Libyan Arab Republic's Libyan Army fled to northern Mali with large stockpiles of heavy weapons. The ensuing insurgency quickly led to the Azawadi declaration of independence and consequent armed Islamist insurgency by MOJWA and Ansar Dine against the secular MNLA. This led to Operation Serval being launched by France in January 2013, followed by Operation Barkhane in 2014 once major fighting was over.
The country remained in a fragile state even after the French intervention, with militants attacking staging attacks in the capital Bamako as well as in Kidal during March 2015. In November of that same year a co-ordinated attack against the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako resulted in more than 20 casualties, most of them hostages. A week later militants attacked a MINUSMA base in Kidal, killing 3 and injuring dozens.
Attacks continued at a steady pace during 2016. Militants attacked and briefly captured a MINUSMA police base in Timbuktu on 5 February, killing a high-ranking Malian commander, while suffering four casualties themselves.[7] On 11 February suspected Islamist militants attacked a customs post in the town of Mopti, central Mali, killing two civilians and a customs officer.[8] A truck bombing at a MINUSMA base in Kidal killed at least 5 UN peacekeepers and injured more than 30 others on 12 February.[9] Gunmen attacked a military checkpoint in Léré on 24 February, killing at least three soldiers and wounding two others.[10] On 12 April three French soldiers were killed and another was wounded when a bomb exploded under their vehicle near Tessalit.[11] MINUSMA suffered two major attacks during May - five Chadian peacekeepers were killed and three others wounded in an ambush near Aguelhok on the 18th, while five Togolese soldiers were killed and another was injured in a similar attack near Sévaré on the 29th.[12][13] On 1 June four UN mission staff were killed in two separate mortar attacks near Gao, including a Chinese peacekeeper, as well as a French expert and two local security guards.[14] Two Malian soldiers were killed in an attack near Dinangourou on 10 July,[15] while the deputy mayor of the Ouro Modi commune was shot on the following day in Mopti.[16]
Attack
The attack took place in the early hours of 19 July 2016, at a Malian Army camp near the town of Nampala, in the rural commune of Nampalari near the border with Mauritania, about 500 km northeast of the capital Bamako.[3] A group of heavily armed men reportedly overran the base, and set parts of it on fire,[4] as Malian troops retreated to nearby Diabaly in order to regroup, according to Army spokesman Souleymane Maiga. The attackers also partially burned and looted the nearby town of Nampala, before fleeing.[5]
A group called Katiba Macina, reportedly linked to Ansar Dine, initially claimed responsibility for the attack on social media. The same group had previously claimed several attacks on the army during 2015.[3] Later a representative of ANSIPRJ contacted The Associated Press and claimed they had carried out the attack in response to attacks by government forces against Fula civilians. The group's spokesman Oumar Aldjana claimed they had gained possession of several trucks and stockpiles of ammunition, and that only three of the militants had been wounded during the assault.[3]
Malian Army spokesman Maiga later confirmed that three groups had staged the coordinated attack, with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb attacking from the north, the Katiba waited in ambush outside town, and the ethnic Fula group joining from the southeast.[5]
Reactions
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta called a security meeting together with the country's Prime Minister Modibo Keita and the commanders of the Armed Forces.[4]
Defence Minister Tièman Hubert Coulibaly later appeared on state television to confirm the death toll, saying that the armed forces will "make sure that this coordinated terrorist attack ... is met with an appropriate response".[5]
On 20 July the government declared a three-day period of mourning for the 17 soldiers killed and extended a state of emergency for 10 days across the entire country.[6]
See also
- 2015 Bamako hotel attack, an attack against a Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako in which MLF and AQIM co-ordinated with Al-Mourabitoun.
- November 2015 Kidal attack, an assault against a MINUSMA base carried out by Ansar Dine.
References
- ^ "The Fulani Crisis: Communal Violence and Radicalization in the Sahel". 22 February 2017.
- ^ French: Peul; Fula: Fulɓe
- ^ a b c d "17 Soldiers Killed, 35 Wounded in Attack on Mali Army Base". The New York Times. 15 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
- ^ a b c "Mali attack: Gunmen kill 17 soldiers at military base". BBC. 19 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
- ^ a b c d "Islamist militants kill 17 soldiers in attack on Mali army base". Reuters. 19 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
- ^ a b "Mali Extends State of Emergency by 10 Days as Islamist Violence Surges". Reuters. 20 July 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Al Qaeda claims responsibility for attack on U.N. base in Mali". Reuters. 6 February 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
- ^ "Suspected Islamist militants kill three at Mali customs post". Reuters Editorial. 11 February 2016. Archived from the original on 14 February 2016.
- ^ Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra (12 February 2016). "Suspected militants kill five in mortar attack on U.N. base in Mali". Reuters.
- ^ "Shooting left 3 people dead in Mali". Reuters. 24 February 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ^ "Mali : deux autres soldats français meurent des suites de leurs blessures". Le Figaro. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
- ^ "Peacekeepers killed in Mali ambush: UN". News24. 18 May 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
- ^ "5 Togolese UN peacekeepers killed in central Mali ambush". Africanews. 29 May 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
- ^ "Four UN Mali mission staff killed in jihadist attack". eNCA. 1 June 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
- ^ "Two Malian soldiers killed near Burkina Faso border". Africanews. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
- ^ "'Terrorists' kill deputy mayor in Mali: Security source". Ahram Online. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
15°16′45″N 5°25′47″W / 15.2792°N 5.4297°W / 15.2792; -5.4297