Mali’s army and its Russian mercenary allies surrendered a strategic northern military stronghold to armed rebels on Friday, as Tuareg separatists and jihadists formed a united front to overthrow the country’s military junta.
The West African country is facing a severe security situation after the Tuareg-dominated FLA and the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM group launched large-scale attacks on multiple military junta strongholds over the weekend.
In those attacks, rebels killed Mali’s defense minister and captured the key northern town of Kidal.
Troops from the “super camp” of Mali’s main Tessalit near the Algerian border on Friday handed over military installations and dispersed south, an FSA official told AFP.
The withdrawal came a day after JNIM began imposing road blockades in the capital Bamako. Only those already in the city were allowed to leave.
A security source in Gao told AFP there were no clashes in Tessalit, adding that regular troops had withdrawn when the attackers entered.
A local elected official confirmed to AFP that the Russians had also abandoned their position there.
Tessalit is a strategic base due to its geographical location and has a well-maintained airfield capable of handling helicopters and other large military aircraft.
In addition to a large amount of military equipment, a large number of Malian troops and their Russian allies are stationed here.
“Tessalit is the oldest base built by a colonial power,” an army officer told AFP, adding that the base was located at the northernmost point and had “a panoramic view of the entire Sahara”.
The Malian army was also forced to abandon Aguelhok, a smaller military base about 100 kilometers south of Tessalit, local elected officials and another FLA official said on Friday.
– Pushing north –
The coordinated attacks last weekend were the largest in Mali in nearly 15 years.
Fierce fighting in several locations, including around Bamako, left at least 23 people dead, including Defense Minister Sadio Camara, a key figure in the junta.
On Thursday, the government held a memorial service for the 47-year-old minister, who was killed by a car bomb at his residence in Kati, a garrison town near Bamako.
Tuareg rebels predict that not only will they conquer the north of the country, but that the military junta that seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021 will also “fall”.
In recent years, Mali, like neighboring junta-led Burkina Faso and Niger, has cut ties with colonial power France and moved closer to Moscow.
The three West African neighbors have joined forces to form the Alliance of Sahel States, which has created a joint force said to number around 15,000 people.
Niger’s government said late Thursday that the three countries had “carried out intensive air strikes” following Saturday’s attacks in Mali.
While the attack marked a turning point in JNIM’s fight against Mali’s military junta, it was far from the jihadists’ only operation in recent years.
Late last year, JNIM attempted to cripple Mali’s economy by blocking supplies of gasoline and diesel shipped from abroad, particularly from Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
