BAMAKO (Reuters) – Three Chinese nationals and two Mauritanians were abducted on Saturday from a structure in northern Mali as gunmen attacked the aircraft in search of hostages and took hostages, the army said.
The raid took place 55 kilometers (34 miles) from the city of Kwala, a normal transit point for businesses operating in Mali’s northern desert, the military said in a statement.
Later that night, gunmen attacked a roadblock in the central San region, a few kilometers from Bamako, killing 3 civilians, the army said in a statement.
No one has yet taken on the duty of any of these attacks.
Parts of Mali have been embroiled in violence since 2012, when rebel teams introduced anti-Malian government campaigns for greater autonomy.
The conflict, which has since been co-opted through jihadist militants connected to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, has displaced thousands of people.
The other people abducted on Saturday are workers of the Chinese-based company Covec and the Mauritanian road structure company ATTM, which were under the cover of a personal security company, according to the army statement.
The assailants also fled with five pickup trucks before setting fire to much of the site, destroying a crane, selling trucks and other devices belonging to the companies, according to the statement.
The kidnappings are a not unusual detail of the war in Mali, with foreign nationals specifically through militants hoping to unload ransoms for their release.
U. N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the Security Council to authorize more troops for Mali’s peacekeeping project in reaction to emerging violence through Islamist militants, according to a report published by Reuters on Friday.
Meanwhile, the former colonial power, France, has announced its goal of starting the flight of its 5,100-force task force targeting militants in west Africa’s Sahel region.
(Report via Tiémoko Diallo; written via Cooper Inveen; edited via Elaine Hardcastle)