Islamists kill five in Mali

The Malian government has sent reinforcement to the border town of Nampala, about 550 kilometres north of the capital, Bamako following a raid by Islamist militants on January 5, 2015 that led to the killing of at least five people. A military source at the United Nations mission in Mali put the number of deaths at five and said the identity of people killed had not been confirmed, stating that they were all "wearing military fatigues," BBC reported.

The militants, witnesses reportedly told BBC opened fire on soldiers after arriving in pick-up trucks, while other reports said they came on motorbike and on foot. Controversy surrounds the intervention of the Malian military as one report said, soldiers fled the attack and another one said troops fought back and clashes last several hours. They were also conflicting reports on the subsequent eviction or not of the militants from the town.

The attack came less than a month after Mali confirmed it had freed four Islamist militants in exchange for the release of a French hostage, Serge Lazarevic who was seized by armed men in Mali in 2011 and had been the last French hostage in the region being held by al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The Islamist militants have been fighting the Malian army for a number of years. BBC reported that the latest phase of the insurgency began after a French-led military intervention in January 2013. The intervention was aimed at driving out Islamist militants from towns they had seized in northern Mali and declared to be an "Islamic State". The French military action dispersed but did not destroy the extremists and sporadic attacks have continued.