Mali drone strikes kill at least 10 civilians at wedding

Drone strikes by Mali’s army have killed at least 10 civilians as they prepared to celebrate a wedding in the central region of San in another escalation of the conflict since armed groups launched a widespread coordinated assault late last month.

The strikes on Sunday occurred during a security crisis after attacks on the military government’s positions last month by fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and Tuareg separatists known as the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA).

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A resident of the Tene locality, where the strikes took place, told the AFP news agency that “10 of our children” were killed. “What was supposed to be a moment of joy in the village turned into immense sorrow,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The tragedy occurred as the villagers were preparing the second edition of this traditional collective wedding, a major cultural event for this community,” a security source who requested anonymity for safety reasons told AFP.

The strikes targeted “a procession of motorbikes following one another”, he added. “That is certainly what drew the attention of the drones.”

A local official also confirmed to AFP that about 10 people had been killed. “A wedding was about to take place when the drones killed at least 10 civilians. It is truly a time of mourning,” he told AFP.

Mali has been in a critical security situation since JNIM teamed up with rebels in the FLA in April. A deadly offensive on April 25 and 26 targeted strategic towns and killed the country’s influential defence minister.

Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, who has reported extensively from Mali, had said, according to military sources, “the fighters involved in this coordinated attack are targeting military armed compounds”, adding that “there is an unprecedented level of panic” in the military ranks.

Alex Vines, Africa director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera that Malian authorities appear to have been caught off guard by the latest wave of attacks.

Kidal and other towns and villages in the north have been captured and are now controlled by the FLA and JNIM, who have since imposed a blockade on the capital, Bamako.

Another wave of attacks by al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters was also reported on May 7, killing at least 30 people in central Mali. The villages of Korikori and Gomossogou in the Mopti region were targeted.

Mali, which is rich in gold and other valuable minerals, has been dealing with unrest since 2012. It has faced a deepening security crisis driven by the FLA , JNIM and the Africa Corps, a Russian government-controlled paramilitary that replaced the private Wagner Group.

Haque told Al Jazeera he learned from witnesses that Russian mercenaries were “fighting in Bamako, around the airport, where they have one of their headquarters”.

Mali’s former colonial ruler, France, and the United Nations had deployed soldiers and peacekeepers to the country to try to control the violence by armed groups, but Bamako expelled their forces after military coups in 2020 and 2021 and is now using Russian fighters instead.