Soldiers loyal to the former government tried to stage a countercoup in Mali on Monday, a spokesman for Mali’s military junta said.

“They are trying to take control of the airport right now, but we will fend them off,’’ said junta spokesman Bakary Mariko. He said the anti-junta forces have the support of mercenaries from the region.

“The idea is to try to take control of the airport so they can fly in ECOWAS troops,’’ he said, referring to troops from the West African regional bloc that tried to mediate after junta leaders staged a coup late in March.

It’s been just over a month since a group of soldiers toppled Mali’s democratically elected president. Since then, junta leader Capt. Amadou Sanago signed a deal with ECOWAS to return the country to constitutional rule. The deal gave the junta a supervisory role in the transition.

“We hear they are going to try to attack our base at Kati too where I am now, but we are ready for them,’’ Mariko said.

Fela Ba, a witness to the fighting, said he saw a large convoy of military vehicles heading to the town of Kati just outside Bamako, where the junta has set up its headquarters.

Witnesses said pro- and anti-junta forces were fighting in Mali’s capital.

Bakary Doucoure, an eyewitness, said there was fighting Monday around the building that houses the country’s national broadcaster and that ambulances were at the scene. The broadcaster has been in the hands of the military junta ever since the March 21 coup.

Yaya Konate, the head of the broadcast station, said that troops arrived at the station at around 6:30 p.m. firing in the air and told all personnel working there to leave. He said the soldiers who took charge of the building were from a group known as the Red Berets.