By Enyichukwu Enemanna
A Malian military helicopter on Saturday crashed at a residential neighborhood in the country’s capital, Bamako.
No casualty figure has been released by the army authorities.
The crashed helicopter was returning from an “operational mission”, the Malian army said in a statement posted on its official Facebook page.
The “attack helicopter” crashed at 1:10 p.m., “in a residential area of Bamako,” according to the statement.
Unverified videos circulating on social media show heavy smoke rising from a residential neighborhood, one showing a piece of a military aircraft marked “army.”
Military aircraft could be seen flying above Bamako in the hours before the crash.
Mali has been battling an Islamist insurgency since 2012, which has since spread from Mali’s north into the center and south of the country.
France intervened in 2013 after northern Mali was taken over by militants but withdrew in 2022 over concerns about Mali’s military government working with Russian Wagner Group mercenaries.
Mali has been under military rule since a 2020 coup.
On Thursday, interim President Assimi Goita’s Chief of Staff, Oumar Traore, was killed along with three others in an ambush in Nara, in the southwest of the country.
