The Malian headquarters of an international anti-terror task force, the G5 Sahel, were attacked on Friday in a car bomb blast, killing six people and leaving many injured, according to a provisional toll. "Shortly after Friday prayers, a suicide bomber in a vehicle painted with UN colours blew up at the entrance to the G5 base in Sevare. It was a huge blast," a military source in the G5 Sahel force told AFP.
It is the first attack on the headquarters of the five-nation force, set up in 2017 to roll back jihadist insurgents and criminal groups in the vast, unstable Sahel region. It came three days before a meeting in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott between French President Emmanuel Macron and the heads of the G5 Sahel states to discuss progress made by the force. A local orange seller, Haoussa Haidara, said "there was a huge blast" followed by gunfire which lasted more than an hour.
Six people were killed in the attack, according to a hospital and a military source, giving an interim toll. "We transported the bodies and the injured to the hospital, but we don't know whether some of the injured have died in hospital. There are six dead on the ground," the military source told AFP.