The battle of Boulikessi took place on October 30 and 31, 2020 during the war in Mali.
| Battle of Boulikessi | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Mali War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 France |  JNIM | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Several dozens of Special Forces soldiers Two mirage 2000 Helicopters | More than 50 militants | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| None | 50 killed 4 captured | ||||||
On the evening of October 30, 2020, a French army operation was launched against a group of jihadists of JNIM while the latter were preparing an attack on the Malian locality of Boulikessi, near the border with Burkina Faso. The jihadist column on motorcycles was first spotted by a drone. While the combatants on motorcycles regrouped and hid under trees, an airstrike was carried out by two French Mirage 2000D fighters. Several dozen Special Forces soldiers from Operation Sabre then intervened on the ground with the support of drone and helicopter strikes. The fighting continued until the early hours of the morning. [1] [2]
On November 2, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, announced that more than 50 jihadists had been neutralized in the operation. About fifty weapons were also seized and about thirty motorcycles destroyed. General Lecointre, Chief of Staff of the armed forces, for his part gave the same day an assessment of about sixty neutralized jihadists. The spokesman for the staff, Frédéric Barbry, also mentions the capture of four combatants. [3] [2]
The Mali War is an ongoing conflict that started in January 2012 between the northern and southern parts of Mali in Africa. On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence or greater autonomy for northern Mali, which they called Azawad. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make this area of Mali an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had taken control of the region by April 2012.
The Battle of Ifoghas, also known as the Battle of Tigharghâr or the Battle of the Ametettai, took place from 18 February to 31 March 2013, during the Northern Mali conflict. The French army and the Chadian army fought armed Salafist jihadist groups led by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar Dine. After being defeated in January in the Battle of Konna and the Battle of Diabaly, the jihadists abandoned Timbuktu and retreated into the Adrar Tigharghar, a mountain of the Adrar of Ifoghas in northeastern Mali, which has been their sanctuary for years. The French started quickly a pursuit, and they took control of the towns of Tessalit and Aguelhok and begun the operation Panther in the Tigharghar. The first clashes erupt on February 18 and are mainly concentrated in the Ametettai Valley. It is caught between two armored columns, one French to the west and another Chadian to the east, while the paratroopers manage to surprise the jihadists by attacking on foot from the north. The valley is taken on March 3 and jihadists begin to gradually abandon the Tigharghar. Excavation missions and some skirmishes, however, continue to take place the following days. The operations cease on March 31. The battle was a turning point in the war, as with the capture of the Tigharghar, the jihadists lose their main sanctuary in the Sahel as well as most of their military arsenal, taken from the Malian army or Libya.
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Operation Panther was a French military operation in Mali that was launched in February 2013.
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The battle of Boulikessi took place between September 30 and October 1, 2019. Jihadists from JNIM and Ansarul Islam attacked Malian bases in Boulikessi and Mondoro, killing between 40 and 85 Malian soldiers, making it the deadliest attack for the Malian army since the Second Battle of Kidal in 2014.
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