{"id":31931,"date":"2017-01-19T01:55:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T01:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/al-qaeda-affiliate-claims-mali-car-bomb-attack-in\/"},"modified":"2017-01-19T01:55:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T01:55:00","slug":"al-qaeda-affiliate-claims-mali-car-bomb-attack-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/al-qaeda-affiliate-claims-mali-car-bomb-attack-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Al-Qaeda affiliate claims Mali car bomb attack in Gao"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate says a group linked to it carried out the suicide attack that killed at least 50 people in northern Mali.}<\/p>\n

A vehicle packed with explosives detonated at a camp housing soldiers and members of rival armed groups in the region’s main city, Gao.<\/p>\n

Mali’s northern desert region has been restive since it was captured by militant Islamists in late 2012.<\/p>\n

Despite French military intervention in 2013, the region remains tense.<\/p>\n

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said the suicide bombing was meant to punish rebel groups co-operating with France, according to a statement obtained by the SITE Intelligence Group.<\/p>\n

AQIM said a group called al-Mourabitoun was responsible and named the bomber it said carried out the attack. Malian media had earlier suggested several bombers took part.<\/p>\n

The victims were involved in conducting patrols in this highly volatile area under a deal backed by the UN in a bid to stop the violence there.<\/p>\n

The accord between the government and rebel groups was signed in June 2015.<\/p>\n

Al-Mourabitoun also said it was behind the hostage-taking at the Radisson Blu hotel in the Malian capital, Bamako, in November 2015, and a deadly raid on the Splendid Hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, in January 2016.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time the military in Mali has been targeted by a deadly attack.
\nIn July last year, about 17 soldiers were killed and 30 others wounded in an attack on a military base in the central town of Nampala.<\/p>\n

{{National mourning}}<\/p>\n

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has declared three days of national mourning in a tweet following the latest attack.<\/p>\n

The fight against extremist groups is one of the major challenges of Mr Keita’s government.<\/p>\n

But a new report by Human Rights Watch says the Malian government is not doing enough to protect civilians from the militants.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s attack shows that even soldiers aren’t safe, says the BBC World Service Africa editor James Copnall.<\/p>\n

“If the security situation continues to deteriorate, then soon there won’t be any peace to keep in Mali,” UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate says a group linked to it carried out the suicide attack that killed at least 50 people in northern Mali.} A vehicle packed with explosives detonated at a camp housing soldiers and members of rival armed groups in the region’s main city, Gao. Mali’s northern desert region has been restive since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31931"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31931"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}