蜜芽传媒

Mali is observing three days of national mourning to remember the more than 60 people who were killed in attacks by Islamist militants on Thursday.

Dozens of civilians died when a passenger boat travelling on the Niger River in the northeast of the country was hit by rockets. Violent jihadists also stormed a nearby military camp, killing 15 soldiers.

The threat posed by Islamist militants has not abated despite the insistence from the military authorities that the arrival of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, would turn the tide of their campaign.

Ulf Laessing is director of the Sahel programme at German think-tank Konrad Adenauer Foundation based in Bamako. He told Newsday: 鈥淭hese are all signs of an escalation in crisis鈥�that鈥檚 a clear result of the French leaving last year and now the UN packing up鈥�.there鈥檚 an increasing security vacuum in northern Mali.鈥�

He added: 鈥淚n the capital and larger cities, some see the Russians as an alternative to the French, the former colonial power鈥檚 troops. But generally in the countryside, where human rights violations are reported, which are attributed to Wagner, they鈥檙e not so popular.鈥�

(Picture: Shows masked fighters in back of pickup in Mali. Credit: Reuters.)

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