Following the attack, residents on Monday lynched and burned alive an arrested man who had not been one of the assailants, according to the leader of a civil society and additional sources, with another person killed by a stray bullet.

Yet by Tuesday, calm prevailed, with security forces out "in large numbers", a Timbuktu resident told AFP, which a security source confirmed.

Both said that the security forces had arrested four individuals who had taken refuge in a city hideout.

The two Timbuktu attacks came just a day after a different violent assault, in which at least 30 soldiers died at the Boulkessi army base in central Mali, near the border with Burkina Faso, in an attack that officials blamed on jihadists.

"The situation is calm" a Timbuktu resident told AFP. "People are going about their business, but you can tell they're still scared.

"It's been a long time since the city experienced such events, and it brought back bad memories for everyone because we felt like the shots were being fired in our own homes", the resident said.

A total of 14 attackers were "neutralised" in the Monday assault on the Timbuktu camp, according to the army's general staff, which said it had been able to thwart the offensive.

Shells were also fired at the airport where heavy gunfire was heard, the army, local officials and residents said.

Junta-ruled Mali has since 2012 faced attacks from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group as well as separatist movements and criminal gangs.

In Timbuktu public transport resumed Tuesday while vendors selling rams for slaughter returned to the streets en masse ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid el-Adha, known locally as Tabaski.

Following the attacks, authorities extended the Timbuktu region's curfew to 9:00 pm to 6:00 am (local and GMT), replacing one in effect since 2023 from 11:00 pm.

Tuesday's return to almost normal was achieved only out of "resignation and fatalism", a representative from a private company in the city told AFP, adding that "people are going about their business".

Another resident, who reported fearing the situation could worsen, told AFP that soldiers patrolling the street "reassures us a little, but we are really scared."

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