Unidentified gunmen attack customs office on Mali-Burkina Faso border

19 Août 2020

Bamako, Mali, August 19 (Infosplusgabon) - Unidentified gunmen attacked the customs office in Koury on the Mali-Burkina Faso border on Sunday night, injuring three people with bullets and setting fire to equipment, a security source in Bamako said  on Tuesday.

"On Sunday around midnight, armed men opened fire towards the customs office in Koury. We called FORSAT (anti-terrorist force) who arrived quickly."

The exchange of fire between FORSAT and the armed men lasted more than two hours.

"There were three wounded and a lot of material damage," the security source said, quoting the head of the customs office, Mamadou Touré.

"The first armed men came through the gate and others climbed the wall of the courtyard. They shouted (Allahou Akbar) before starting to pound the premises with heavy weapons," the source said, estimating the number of assailants at around ten.

The Regional Director of Customs, Lt-Col Mohamed Coulibaly, who inspected the damaged premises, congratulated his men for their courage and urged them to be much more vigilant.

Administration officials in the Yorosso circle in the southern Sikasso region, where Koury is situated and is counting its fifth attack, deplored the lack of military surveillance in an area where terrorist groups are entrenched in a nest on the flanks of the Boura hill in the Burkinabe border strip.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/OMM/GABON2020

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