The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group has claimed responsibility for last week’s attack in Mali, in the Menaka region (northeast), in which – according to it – 16 soldiers were killed.

Authorities in Mali, ruled by the military who seized power in a 2020 coup, have been silent on the attack since August 3; an AFP military source said six were killed and several were missing in the ambush near Menaka.

The Amaq news agency, IS’s propaganda arm, reported that militants ambushed elements of the Malian army moving by road in the direction of Niger. Sixteen soldiers were killed and dozens wounded in the battle, which lasted about an hour, according to Amaq.

The jihadists set fire to three vehicles and seized four others, while taking with them a quantity of ammunition, weapons and rocket launchers, according to the same source.

Mali has been plunged since 2012 into a multidimensional crisis, political, security and economic, after a separatist and then jihadist armed insurgency broke out, which then spread to the central part of the country and to neighboring states, Burkina Faso and Niger.

The region of Menaka has been transformed in recent months into a theater of advance of the Islamic State in the Great Sahara (ISG). The jihadist group’s attacks in this region, a recent report by the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed the lives of “hundreds” of people and forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes and communities since the beginning of the year.