Malian troops foiled a second suicide bomber attack in the northern town of Gao late on Saturday, highlighting fragile security in zones recaptured by a French-led offensive that is hunting Islamist insurgent bases further north.
French forces rushed reinforcements and armoured vehicles on Sunday to the Malian army checkpoint on Gao’s northern outskirts which was the same location attacked by another suicide bomber on a motorcycle on Friday.
A fast-moving French military intervention launched last month in its former Sahel colony has driven al Qaeda-allied fighters from Mali’s main northern towns, such as Gao and Timbuktu, into the northeast Adrar des Ifoghas mountains.
But with Mali’s weak army unable to secure recaptured zones, and the deployment of a larger African security force slowed by delays and kit shortages, there are fears the Islamist jihadists will hit back with more guerrilla raids and suicide bombings.Malian army officers said the north Gao checkpoint came under attack late on Saturday by a group of Islamist rebels who fired from a road and bridge that lead north through the desert scrub by the Niger River to Bourem, 80 km (50 miles) away.
“Our soldiers came under heavy gunfire from jihadists from the bridge … At the same time, another one flanked round and jumped over the wall. He was able to set off his suicide belt,” Malian Captain Sidiki Diarra told reporters.
Besides the bomber, who was blown to pieces, one Malian soldier was lightly wounded, Diarra added. In Friday’s motorbike suicide bomber attack, a Malian soldier was also injured. Diarra described Saturday’s bomber as a “bearded Arab”, saying this had been visible from the body parts collected by the soldiers in a wheelbarrow.
“We heard shooting at around 11 p.m. and closed our doors, and then there was an explosion … In the morning we found that someone had blown up and part of his body landed here,” said Abderaman Idrissa, who lives in a mud home near the checkpoint. French military sappers carried out three controlled blasts in the area to destoy other devices and munitions found.
