<p>Nineteen members of the security forces died and five were wounded on Sunday in a major assault by suspected jihadists at a military camp in central Mali, the army said.</p>.<p>"The provisional toll is 19 dead, five wounded," Malian Armed Forces said on Twitter.</p>.<p>A local lawmaker said all those killed at Sokolo military camp were gendarmes, or paramilitary police officers.</p>.<p>"The terrorists arrived on motorcycles," said the official, who asked not to be named for security reasons.</p>.<p>Sokolo resident Baba Gakou told AFP: "There were more than 100 attackers.</p>.<p>"They arrived at five in the morning. They cut off any withdrawal by the gendarmes.</p>.<p>"The firing stopped at seven am," he said, adding that the assailants left with all the weapons and vehicles at the camp.</p>.<p>"They picked up all their dead. They did not touch anyone in the village," he told AFP.</p>.<p>A local humanitarian source who managed to enter the camp after the suspected jihadists had left, described the scene as "complete chaos".</p>.<p>"It looked like the attackers knew what they were doing," the source said. Sokolo is located in central Segou region where jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda are known to operate.</p>.<p>The armed forces tweet said troops were combing the area backed by a military aircraft following the assault.</p>.<p>Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012 and has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since.</p>.<p>The Bamako government announced Wednesday it would hold legislative elections in late March, after repeated postponements prompted by insecurity and political infighting.</p>.<p>Holding the elections was a key recommendation from crisis talks in December aimed at exploring non-military solutions to the worsening violence.</p>.<p>Despite 4,500 French troops in the Sahel region, plus a 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Mali, the conflict has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.</p>
<p>Nineteen members of the security forces died and five were wounded on Sunday in a major assault by suspected jihadists at a military camp in central Mali, the army said.</p>.<p>"The provisional toll is 19 dead, five wounded," Malian Armed Forces said on Twitter.</p>.<p>A local lawmaker said all those killed at Sokolo military camp were gendarmes, or paramilitary police officers.</p>.<p>"The terrorists arrived on motorcycles," said the official, who asked not to be named for security reasons.</p>.<p>Sokolo resident Baba Gakou told AFP: "There were more than 100 attackers.</p>.<p>"They arrived at five in the morning. They cut off any withdrawal by the gendarmes.</p>.<p>"The firing stopped at seven am," he said, adding that the assailants left with all the weapons and vehicles at the camp.</p>.<p>"They picked up all their dead. They did not touch anyone in the village," he told AFP.</p>.<p>A local humanitarian source who managed to enter the camp after the suspected jihadists had left, described the scene as "complete chaos".</p>.<p>"It looked like the attackers knew what they were doing," the source said. Sokolo is located in central Segou region where jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda are known to operate.</p>.<p>The armed forces tweet said troops were combing the area backed by a military aircraft following the assault.</p>.<p>Mali has been struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012 and has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since.</p>.<p>The Bamako government announced Wednesday it would hold legislative elections in late March, after repeated postponements prompted by insecurity and political infighting.</p>.<p>Holding the elections was a key recommendation from crisis talks in December aimed at exploring non-military solutions to the worsening violence.</p>.<p>Despite 4,500 French troops in the Sahel region, plus a 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Mali, the conflict has engulfed the centre of the country and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.</p>