page_title: 2016 Nampala attack
section_title: Attack
hierarchical_section_title: 2016 Nampala attack / Attack
caption_attribution_description: English: Islamist fighters in northern Mali Français&#160;: Combattants islamistes dans le nord du Mali.
context_page_description: The 2016 Nampala attack was an armed assault against a Malian Army base in the Niono Cercle subdivision of the Ségou Region of Mali on July 19, 2016, that left at least 17 government soldiers dead and 35 others injured. The Macina Liberation Front, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the ethnic Fula militant group 'National Alliance for the Protection of Fulani Identity and the Restoration of Justice' claimed joint responsibility.
context_section_description: The attack took place in the early hours of July 19, 2016, at a Malian Army camp near the town of Nimpala, in the rural commune of Nampalari near the border with Mauritania, about 500 km northeast of the capital Bamako. A group of heavily armed men reportedly overran the base, and set parts of it on fire, as Malian troops retreated to nearby Diabaly in order to regroup, according to Army spokesman Souleymane Maiga. The attackers also partially burned and looted the nearby town of Nampala, before fleeing.
  A group called the Macina Liberation Front, reportedly linked to Ansar Dine, initially claimed responsibility for the attack on social media. The same group had previously claimed several attacks on the army during 2015. Later a representative of ANSIPRJ contacted The Associated Press and claimed they had carried out the attack in response to attacks by government forces against Fula civilians. The group's spokesman Oumar Aldjana claimed they had gained possession of several trucks and stockpiles of ammunition, and that only three of the militants had been wounded during the assault.
  Malian Army spokesman Maiga later confirmed that three groups had staged the co-ordinated attack, with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb attacking from the north, the Macina Liberation Front waited in ambush outside town, and the ethnic Fula group joining from the southeast.
caption: Islamist fighters in northern Mali
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