Fierce fighting
The coordinated attacks last weekend marked the largest assault in Mali in nearly 15 years.
The fierce fighting at various locations, including around Bamako, resulted in the death of at least 23 people and killed defence minister Sadio Camara, a key junta figure.
A government tribute was held on Thursday for the 47-year-old minister, who died as a result of a car bomb at his residence in Kati, a garrison town near Bamako.
UNICEF said in a statement on Friday that civilians and children had been killed and injured during the attacks, and that wounded children are being treated in local health facilities, without specifying the number.
A health centre in Gao was reportedly attacked, while a school in the Mopti region had been occupied by “weapon bearers”, with an explosive device located nearby, it added.
An investigation by the Bamako Military Prosecutor’s Office alleged that several active duty and former military personnel had been complicit in the “planning, coordination and execution” of the attacks.
It also alleged that exiled opposition politician Oumar Mariko had been involved, according to a document from the public prosecutor’s office on Friday.
In recent years, Mali, like neighbouring junta-led Burkina Faso and Niger, has cut ties with colonial power France.
The three west African neighbours banded together to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which created a joint force it says now numbers some 15,000 men.
The government of Niger said late on Thursday that the three countries had “conducted intense air campaigns” following the attacks in Mali last Saturday.
While that assault marked a turning point in JNIM’s fight against the Malian junta, it was far from the separatists’ only campaign in recent times.
Late last year, JNIM attempted to cripple the Malian economy by imposing blockades on the supply of petrol and diesel being trucked in from abroad, particularly from Ivory Coast and Senegal.
