Suspected jihadists abducted dozens of civilians after holding up a bus in the centre of jihadist-rocked Mali, an eyewitness and local sources told AFP Thursday.

Tuesday’s attack saw a bus bound for the capital Bamako from the central town of Bankass “intercepted by a group of jihadists”, said local Bankass leader Abdalah Togo in a statement.

A man passing by on the road told AFP he saw “five motorcycles and six people” by the bus at the time of the hold-up.

“Other attackers were already on the bus checking the passengers,” the eyewitness added. “They were carrying weapons and wearing turbans.”

The attack resulted in “several dozen people abducted by suspected jihadists”, a security source told AFP on Thursday.

“The kidnapped people are civilians,” the source added.

“The women and children were freed while the men were brought to an unknown destination.”

A local official told AFP on Thursday that “buses coming from Bankass are often targeted by armed groups”, several kidnappings having taken place over the last three years.

Those kidnapped “were never released”, the official added.

But “no one expected this latest kidnapping because traffic has been normal for around three months”, said the official.

Another Bankass source suggested the abductions were reprisals.

“They warned us not to mix with villages that have not signed a deal with them,” the source said.

Since 2012, Mali has been in the throes of a profound security crisis fuelled in large part by armed jihadists affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as criminal gangs.

Following coups in 2020 and then 2021 the Sahel country has been led by a military junta, who have pledged to restore order and crack down on violent Islamists.

But jihadist attacks continue to trouble the nation, despite the junta’s claims that its stepped-up military campaigns and tilt towards security cooperation with Russia have turned the tide.