Gunmen attacked and briefly seized a Malian army base overnight, killing at least 16 soldiers and destroying five vehicles in central Mali’s Mopti region, officials said on Sunday.
The base is in the village of Dioura, Youssouf Coulibaly, mayor of the nearest town, Kareri, told Reuters by telephone from inside the base that he visited on Sunday morning after the attack. Central Mali has in the past few years been overrun by jihadists with links to al Qaeda.