The Malian army is launching a major manhunt for Abou Mariama, the alleged leader of the group responsible for a deadly ambush on the Gao-Ansongo axis, which claimed the lives of 25 civilians.
The ambush struck a civilian convoy escorted between Gao and Ansongo on February 9, 2025.
The attack, perpetrated near Kobé, 30 km from Gao, claimed the lives of mainly young foreign gold miners.
13 others were injured.
According to a statement from the General Staff of the Armed Forces received by APA, the heavily armed attackers were repelled after violent clashes with Malian forces.
Three civilian vehicles were set on fire.
Faced with this escalation, the military high command ordered airstrikes and targeted ground operations to neutralise the Abou Mariama group. On February 10, a logistics vehicle suspected of being linked to the attackers was spotted and destroyed by an airstrike southeast of Gourma Rarhous, in the Timbuktu region.
The explosion that followed confirmed, according to the army, the presence of explosive substances
on board, eliminating several fighters of the group.
In addition, the Malian armed forces FAMA carried out an offensive in the Tin-Eidine sector, 36 km northeast of Ansongo, where a shelter used by Abou Mariama’s men for transit and supplies were destroyed.
During this operation, one insurgent was neutralised and another captured, the army said, assuring citizens that it was continuing the sweeps, having already found 19 bodies of insurgents and seized several abandoned weapons and war materials.
This manhunt is part of a broader strategy to secure the RN-17 axis, which is regularly targeted by insurgent groups affiliated with the Islamic State in the Sahel (IS-S).
Two days before the attack on the convoy, a Malian from the diaspora was kidnapped on the same road, highlighting the need for military reinforcement in the region.
AC/Sf/fss/as/APA