Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), a local affiliate of Al-Qaeda, attacked Mali's Bamako Airport on September 17 in its largest assault on the capital in years, setting fire to the presidential B737-700(BBJ).
Videos released by the militia and seen by ch-aviation show fighters setting fire to one of the CFM International CFM56 engines of TZ-PRM (msn 30328). The aircraft has been in storage at Bamako and it is not clear whether it suffered any severe damage. JNIM also claimed to have damaged a number of military aircraft at the airport.
While the militia did not target any civilian infrastructure, commercial operations out of Bamako were halted in the aftermath of the attack. Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that civilian flights resumed on September 18.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that the 25.1-year-old B737-700(BBJ) is one of two large aircraft operated by République du Mali alongside a much older B727-200. The Malian government acquired the B737 in 2015.
