Bamako — Six soldiers are dead and 20 wounded after Malian Army bases in the central cities of Sévaré, Niono, and Bapho were simultaneously attacked this morning by suspected terrorists.

An army press release says that the bases in the cities of Sévaré, Niono, and Bapho were attacked by "terrorists" in "kamikaze vehicles packed with explosives," and that in addition to the casualties, a helicopter was damaged.

Sévaré is a town in Mali's Mopti Region and the site of the former headquarters of the G5 Sahel, an intergovernmental task force with member states Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.

The headquarters were moved to Bamako in 2018 after an attack which killed several people.

The Bapho military base is less than 20 kilometers from Ségou, Mali, a large regional and cultural capital more than 200 kilometers north of Bamako.

After an Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012, French forces intervened and took back control of the north in 2013. In the years since, insecurity has moved south into Mali's central regions.

In February, France announced that it would withdraw its troops from Mali after increasing tensions between France and Mali's military government.

Several governments have accused Mali of working with Russian Wagner mercenaries, a claim the Malian government denies. There have been several reports of unidentified white soldiers working with the Malian army in the Ségou and Mopti regions since February.