BAMAKO, — Mali extended a state of emergency for 10 days on Wednesday, after a spate of attacks by armed groups killed dozens and destabilized the vast desert country.
The government’s council of ministers also declared a three-day period of mourning for the 17 soldiers killed in an attack on an army base on Tuesday that was suspected to have been carried out by Islamic extremists.
Mali originally declared a state of emergency in November, and it was extended in April by three months.
“Despite the actions of the state, the terrorist threat persists,’’ the council of ministers said in a statement, “as is evidenced by the recent attacks against the armed and security forces of Mali.”
The deteriorating security situation puts Mali at risk of falling back into the chaos that nearly tore it to pieces three years ago, when Islamic militants hijacked an ethnic Tuareg rebellion, before French forces pushed them back in 2013.
Despite the 11,000 United Nations peacekeepers deployed since the French intervention, militants still launch frequent attacks across Mali, including a high-profile assault on a hotel in Bamako, the capital, last November that killed 20 people.
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