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Bloomberg
The death toll from an attack on an army post in eastern Mali rose to 54, making it one of the deadliest assaults on security forces since separatists and radical insurgents seized swathes of the nation’s north in 2012.
The latest estimate of casualties was announced by government spokesman Yaya Sangare in a statement on Twitter.
Reinforcements dispatched to the army post in Indelimane near the Niger border found 54 bodies, including one civilian, and “significant material damage,†the statement said. The previously announced death toll was 35.
The attack comes after 38 soldiers were killed in a simultaneous attack on two army bases near the Burkina Faso border on September 30.
Attacks by militants linked to al-Qaeda and IS have intensified in Mali’s central region despite the presence of French troops and a 15,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force.
The Sahel, a semi-arid region on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert, saw a doubling of militant attacks last year, according to a recent State Department report.