BAMAKO/OUAGADOUGOU – Fourteen civilians and 11 soldiers died in an attack in Mali on Sunday. The attacks were in Burkina Faso and Mali, two neighbouring West African countries that are struggling to withstand deadly jihadist rebellions, security and military sources claimed.

The military released a statement saying that suicide bombers had driven cars loaded with explosives into the three Mali military camps before dawn. At the Sevare camp six people were killed, 15 were injured and five others were hurt.

According to two security sources, armed gunmen assaulted a Gaskinde military post in northern Burkina Faso in the early hours of the morning. They killed five soldiers as well as four civilians.

Military juntas have snatched power in Mali and Burkina Faso in the last two years, promising to provide greater security than their democratically-elected predecessors.

Yet, violence continues. Both countries’ armed forces have been accused in a series of violent attacks on civilians as part of their efforts to eradicate Islamist fighters from desert areas.

In 2012, Islamists seized the northern part of Mali and started trouble. They were defeated by French forces, but soon they rallied and began to attack the capital Bamako in south.

In just a few years, al Qaeda-linked groups and the Islamic State began spreading and were wreaking chaos in Niger and Burkina Faso. Millions of people were displaced and thousands died.

The 2020 military coup that overthrew Mali’s government saw the formation of an opposition junta. This group of fighters is part of Russia’s Wagner Group. It has been accused of abuses in Russia and sanctions by the European Union.

Russia and Mali have both previously stated that they were not mercenaries, but trained soldiers to help local troops use equipment bought from Russia.

Russian authorities deny that the Wagner Group is connected to them.