MALI: At least 21 people, including 11 children, have been killed in drone attacks in the town of Tinzaouaten in northern Mali.

A spokesperson for the coalition of Tuareg-majority groups fighting for independence in northern Mali said on Monday that the drones hit a pharmacy and a group of people, leaving dozens wounded.

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Mali’s army confirmed the drone attacks on national television, saying the “precision strikes targeted terrorists”.

Tinzaouaten has witnessed air attacks before and as recently as July when the Tuareg-led groups claimed to have killed a large number of Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner Group mercenaries.

The separatists said they killed at least 47 soldiers and 84 Wagner mercenaries in the July attacks, but the army did not confirm that death toll.

After the attack, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s “firm support” for Mali and its army.

The army has claimed that the Wagner fighters are in the country only as “instructors” helping the army train. Ksenia, the daughter of a fallen soldier of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, stands in front of a makeshift memorial, which was erected following head of Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin and commander Dmitry Utkin’s death in 2023, during a commemoration ceremony held to pay tribute to Wagner fighters, who were recently killed in Mali by northern Tuareg rebels,

Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan think tank, told The Associated Press news agency that Malian forces and Russian mercenaries lack a “strong presence” on the ground in the region, making drones the only way to attack.

“Therefore air strikes, including against civilians, are expected to increase as an act of revenge following the recent major setback to Wagner mercenaries in northern Mali,” Lyammouri said.

Since a military coup in 2020, Mali’s army has been fighting for control of the country.

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