BAMAKO, Mali — Malian forces backed by Russia’s Africa Corps paramilitary group have retaken the northern town of Kidal from Tuareg separatists, the country’s military-led government said Tuesday, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera and DW reported.
The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a coalition of Tuareg and northern separatist factions, said it had carried out a “controlled withdrawal” from the town after sustained air strikes by Malian troops and their Russian allies, calling it a temporary operational measure. Government spokesman Brig. Gen. Issa Ousmane Coulibaly said on state television that the operation was carried out by air and ground forces with Africa Corps assistance. An FLA spokesman, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, said the army entered Kidal without a fight, AP reported.
The FLA and the al-Qaida-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) seized Kidal in a wave of attacks in April that also killed Mali’s defense minister. Malian troops and Wagner fighters had first retaken the town in November 2023, the most concrete gain of their partnership, before losing it this year.
Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the advance. Retaking the town “affirms the military-led government’s authority and boosts the army’s morale,” Beverly Ochieng of Control Risks told Reuters, according to DW, but she called it largely “symbolic” and not “decisive.” Mali’s junta, which took power in coups in 2020 and 2021, expelled French forces and U.N. peacekeepers and turned to Russian paramilitaries; rights groups have accused the army and its Russian partners of abuses during military operations.
Sources: Associated Press, Al Jazeera, DW
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