Mali jihadists kill dozens in twin attacks amid growing Islamist threat

A sign on a road to Gao, northern Mali, reads ‘welcome to the Islamic state of Gao’. At least 64 people have been killed in multiple jihadist attacks. Photograph: Jérôme Delay/AP

Al-Qaida-linked militants have killed at least 64 people in twin attacks on an army base and a crowded passenger boat on the Niger River in northern Mali.

Extremists from the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) appear to have targeted the Timbuktu boat on the river and an army position at Bamba, in the northern Gao region, with “a provisional toll of 49 civilians and 15 soldiers killed”, according to a government statement.