Mali separatists claim victory over army, Russian mercenaries

Malian soldiers/ AFP

A mainly Tuareg separatist coalition has claimed a major victory over Mali's army and its Russian allies following three days of intense fighting in a district on the Algerian border, Al Jazeera reported. Mali's military rulers, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, took power in 2020 and turned to Russia's Wagner Group of mercenaries for security assistance, after expelling French forces in 2022.

Tuareg are an ethnic group that has been fighting for Mali's independence since 2012. "Our forces decisively obliterated these enemy columns on Saturday," said a statement by Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesman for the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) alliance, on Sunday.

"A large amount of equipment and weapons were seized or damaged", and prisoners were taken, the statement said, adding that 7 rebels were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting in the Tinzaouatene district. Large-scale fighting broke out on Thursday between the army of the West African nation and the separatists in Tinzaouatene after the army announced it had retaken control of several districts, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Tinzaouatene is almost entirely surrounded by Algerian territory and has been the scene of other battles between separatist forces and the army over the past decade. The separatist groups lost control of several districts in 2023 after an offensive that saw forces from the military government take Kidal. The CSP-PSD also said it damaged a helicopter, which crashed in Kidal, a rebel stronghold.

The Malian army said in statements that two soldiers had been killed and 10 injured. One of its helicopters crashed in Kidal on Friday while on a routine mission, but no one was killed, it said. Mali has said Russian forces are not Wagner mercenaries, but trainers helping local troops with equipment bought from Russia. Al Jazeera reported, citing the Baza Telegram news channel, that Wagner fighters have been in Mali since at least 2021. It claimed at least 20 Wagner fighters had been killed in the fight.

Meanwhile, accusations have surfaced of rights abuses of the civilian population by the Malian army and Wagner forces. The Malian authorities, however, deny the allegations. Mali has also been rocked by violence by rebels linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), as well as community self-defence and criminal organisations, since 2012.

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