Separatists in Mali Say an Army Airstrike on a Market Killed 18. The Army Says It Targeted Fighters

By BABA AHMED

10:48 AM EDT, March 18, 2025

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A separatist group in Mali said an airstrike on a market in the country’s north has killed at least 18 people. Mali’s army said its attack targeted armed militants.

The Collective for the Defense of the Rights of the Azawad People, part of a Tuareg separatist coalition, said the attack occurred 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Lerneb in the Timbuktu region.

Seven people were also injured in Sunday’s strike, the group said in a statement late Monday, denouncing a “barbaric act from another age.”

Mali’s army said on X it carried out airstrikes on a “refuge” in the area and killed 11 “terrorists.”

The West African nation, along with neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russian mercenary units for security assistance instead. Since seizing power in 2021, interim president Assimi Goita has struggled to curb violence in Mali, while the army has has been accused of targeting civilians.

Last month, the Front for the Liberation of Azawad, the coalition of Tuareg separatist groups, accused the army and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group of “coldly executing” at least 24 people in northern Mali.

A possible reason for the contradicting information about the latest attack might be that the military targeted militants in civilian-populated areas indiscriminately, said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan think tank, adding that jihadi fighters are known to visit markets to obtain supplies.

“The Malian army may have deemed the targets significant enough to accept a certain degree of civilian casualties, but these would not be the primary goal,” he said.

Lyammouri said another explanation could be that both the army and separatists misrepresented the identities of those killed to bolster their narratives.

The army might point to it as combating extremism, while the separatists might allege human rights allegations, “legitimizing their goal of greater autonomy or separation from the Malian state.”