West African bloc ECOWAS on Wednesday strongly condemned jihadist attacks which a day earlier hit the Malian capital where locals voiced concern and questions remained about the rare and deadly strike.An Al-Qaeda-linked group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for the attack in Bamako against highly sensitive targets, including a military police training centre and the military airport.The operation was the first of its kind in years and was a forceful blow to the ruling junta, experts say.The Malian capital is normally spared the sort of attacks that occur almost daily in some parts of the West African country.Rokia Sanogo came as usual on Wednesday to sell bananas at a junction near the police training centre targeted in the attack.”We just don’t have a choice, we have to go out and get the day’s meal,” she said.But “we’re really worried, we don’t have any peace of mind”, she added.Among the unknowns is the number of human casualties, with authorities yet to release precise details of the toll.The general staff admitted late Tuesday that “some human lives were lost”, notably personnel at the military police centre.It confirmed that the targets were a gendarmes’ training centre and the city’s airport, a complex housing a military airport adjoining the civilian one.The attack was repelled, the assailants “neutralised” and the situation “rapidly brought under control”, it added.Bourama Sidibe, a motorbike taxi driver interviewed in the same district as the gendarmes’ training camp, said he was “proud of the work done by the police”.But restaurant owner, Soumaila Tembely, wondered whether there had been “a degree of negligence on the part of the authorities”.”It has to be said that this is nothing new. The situation has been going on for a long time,” he said.- ‘Retaliation’ -Questions about how the jihadists managed to carry out the attack and the extent of the damage also remain.Gunfire continued for much of the day Tuesday near the airport, officials and an AFP correspondent reported.Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) –- the jihadist group that claimed the attack –- broadcast images showing fighters strolling around and firing randomly into the windows of the presidential hangar in the airport complex.One video showed a fighter setting fire to part of an aircraft.Authorities have given no indication whether the plane belonging to junta chief Colonel Assimi Goita was targeted.JNIM claimed that a few dozen of its fighters had killed and wounded “hundreds” from the opposing ranks, including members of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner.The jihadist group said in a statement on its communication channels that it had destroyed six military aircraft, including a drone, and damaged four others.It claimed the attack was “in retaliation for the hundreds of massacres committed by the ruling junta and its Russian allies against our Muslim people”.AFP has been unable to verify the claims made by both sides, given the restricted flow of information under the ruling junta.Mali, ruled by the military after coups in 2020 and 2021, has since 2012 been ravaged by different factions affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.- Sends message to junta -The transport ministry said on Tuesday afternoon that flights had resumed at Bamako’s international airport.The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) expressed “strong condemnation” of the attacks targeting Bamako, whose junta says it is quitting the regional body.Mali’s leaders broke off ties with the regional group in January at the same time as its junta-led neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger.The three countries accuse ECOWAS of having failed to support them in the battle against jihadist insurgents and of being subservient to former colonial power France.Tuesday’s attack came a day after the trio marked a year since the creation of their own breakaway grouping, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).Mali’s junta chief on Sunday said that the alliance had “considerably weakened the armed terrorist groups”.The attack “signals the inability of Mali’s intelligence and security apparatus — along with those of its Russian and regional allies — to detect and intercept the plot beforehand,” Lucas Webber, from Tech Against Terrorism, told AFP.The JNIM additionally sent a message to the Malian government and army by seeking to avoid civilian victims, the analyst added.
