Gunmen stage simultaneous attacks in and outside Mali capital, army says

Militants staged attacks in Mali’s capital Bamako and in several locations in the interior of the country on Saturday morning, the Mali army said, in an apparently coordinated assault involving multiple groups.

Two loud explosions and sustained gunfire were heard shortly before 6 a.m. near Mali’s main military base Kati outside the capital Bamako, and soldiers were deployed to block off roads in the area, a Reuters witness said.

There was similar unrest at around the same time in the central town of Sevare and the town of Kidal and city of Gao in northern Mali. “There’s gunfire everywhere,” a witness in Sevare said.