Bomb injures two at French embassy in Mali

Two Malians were hurt when a professed member of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) exploded a gas cylinder at the French embassy in Malian capital of Bamako on Wednesday. The alleged culprit was arrested immediately and identified as a Tunisian national.

Fréderic Delangle

Multiple reports said the attacker fired shots toward the embassy, but security guards did not return fire.

Property damage from Wednesday's explosion was reported to be limited to an embassy gate.

AQIM has been campaigning to deter French activities in their former west African colonies and is thought to have bases across Algeria, Mauritania and Mali.

The group is believed to have about 400 fighters working from Niger to Mauritania and conducts the majority of its attacks in Algeria.

AQIM claimed responsibility for the 16 September abduction of five French nationals, a Togolese and a Madagascan who worked at a French-owned uranium mine in northern Niger. The group is being held north-east of Mali.

A French hostage was killed by AQIM last July when a Franco-Mauritanian rescue mission failed.

In August 2009 a Mauritanian AQIM suicide bomber detonated near the French embassy in Nouakchott, the nation’s capital, lightly injuring three.

Mali’s Tourism Minister, Ndiaye Bah, said that the country’s esteemed Festival in the Desert music revue will continue as planned on Thursday.