Masked gunmen armed with guns and hand grenades stormed a night club in the Malian capital Bamako and opened fire screaming "Allahu akbar" (God is great). According to witnesses, the jihadists singled out a French national who was in the club before killing him. Five people died in the attack.
The following day, an Algerian jihadist group, Al-Murabitoun, claimed responsibility for the act. They called it a revenge attack for the killing one of their leaders shot by French troops in northern Mali in December 2014.
Earlier, on Sunday, the small MINUSMA (United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali) base in Kidal was shelled by rockets. Three people died during the attack. Nobody has taken responsibility for the assault so far.
"There is at this stage no way of knowing whether there is a direct link between the two attacks," Paul Melly, Associate Fellow with the Africa Program at the UK-based think tank Chatham House said.
"It is obviously quite likely that there is a link, at least in the sense that both lots of attackers are jihadists."
A week ago after months of talks in Algeria, the Malian government and the Tuareg rebels preliminarily accepted a peace treaty. Bamako was ready to accept the terms without further discussion, while the rebels needed to consult with their rank and file militia.
Currently it is unclear whether the Tuareg rebels will sign the agreement by the end of the month.
