Over 50 people killed in convoy ambush in northeast Mali, sources say

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(Reuters) – More than 50 people were killed near Mali’s northeastern city of Gao on Friday after armed assailants ambushed their convoy and its army escort, a local official and residents said.

The attackers struck near the village of Kobe, around 30 km (19 miles) from Gao in a region where affiliates of Islamic State and Al Qaeda have been active for over a decade, destabilising Mali and its neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger.

“People jumped out of vehicles to flee. There were many dead and wounded civilians,” the local official said on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

Up to 56 bodies were recorded at the hospital in Gao, the official said, adding that there was also an unknown number of military casualties.

The Malian army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Gao resident also said around 50 were killed and vehicles torched. Deadly attacks have become so frequent that the military organises near-daily escorts, the resident said.

The insurgencies took root in Mali’s arid north following a Tuareg separatist rebellion in 2012. The Islamist militants have since spread to other countries in the impoverished central Sahel region south of the Sahara.

The attacks have killed thousands of people and contributed to a humanitarian crisis with over 3.2 million people displaced as of January, according to the International Organization for Migration.

(Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)