Return to calm in Timbuktu after a deadly weekend

"For the moment, it's quiet. [...] But our team on the ground raked and checks if the jihadists are still active or not,"  an officer of the Malian army told AFP.

"Calm has returned to Timbuktu, for his part confirms a resident, adding there are more shots [audible] but everyone is at home."

In the night from Saturday to Sunday, a suicide bomber who tried to cross a checkpoint at one of the entrances of Timbuktu, detonated his explosive belt, injuring a Malian military. Several other Islamists have managed to infiltrate the city, causing fights with the Malian army.

Open fighting on two fronts

According to a Malian officer attached there, the Islamists opened "two fronts" in the city: one to a hotel for temporary residence of the governor of the region of Timbuktu, the other to the single military camp the city occupied by the Malian soldiers.

In 24 hours, at least seven people were killed, including a Malian soldier i, a civilian and five Nigerian jihadists. Four Malian soldiers were also wounded.

The Malian army has enlisted the help of French troops to flush out the Islamists hiding in the city. According to the spokesman of the French army, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, a "platoon and section of fifty men," were mobilized. "A patrol of Mirage 2000D and a patrol of Rafale were put into action," says one also. According to the same source, a French soldier was wounded.

Timbuktu, relieved in January by the French and Malian troops had already been targeted by a suicide attack on the night of March 20 to 21. Islamist fighters, while holed up in the massive Ifoghas (in the extreme north-east of the country) and hounded by Chadian and French armies, have not given up fighting. At the beginning of last week, the region of Gao in northeastern Mali, has been the scene of several deadly clashes between the Malian army and Islamists.

After a weekend marked by clashes between Malian soldiers and jihadists, calm returned on Monday, the streets of Timbuktu. At least seven people were killed in fighting on Saturday and Sunday.