Bamako, Mali – An explosion killed at least eleven (11) people on a bus in central Mali on Thursday, a region regularly rocked by jihadist violence, according to police and local sources.
The bus was struck by a blast on the road between Bandiagara and Goundaka, in the Mopti area in the early afternoon, a security source said.
“We have just transferred nine bodies to the clinic. And it’s not over yet,” Moussa Housseyni of the local Bandiagara Youth Association had said earlier, Africanews reports.
A police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave a provisional toll of 11 dead and many seriously injured.
Mali is struggling with a long jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
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Mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are among the jihadists’ weapons of choice. They can explode on impact or be detonated remotely.
A report by the UN mission in Mali MINUSMA found that as of August 31, mines and IEDs had caused 72 deaths. Most of the victims are soldiers — but a quarter are civilians, it said.
