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Armed groups and Tuareg separatists struck multiple towns and a prison in Mali on Saturday in coordinated attacks that come more than two months after the same groups staged offensives in which the country’s defence minister was killed.
The fighting, which started around 5:00 am (0500 GMT), was reported in Gao, Anefis, Aguelhok, and Sevare, as well as at a prison in Kenieroba, according to the army, residents, and security sources.
Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), an ethnic Tuareg separatist movement, told AFP that “several positions have fallen, but fighting is still underway inside the city” of Anefis.
A resident there contacted by AFP said that “armed groups are in the town, but the army is still putting up resistance. The camp (there) has not yet fallen.”
The northern towns of Anefis and Aguelhok are the last remaining locations where Mali’s army maintains a presence in the Kidal region, following the massive attacks of April 25 and 26.
In a major blow to the ruling military junta, the strategic northern city of Kidal fell under the control of FLA fighters during the late-April offensives.
The attacks were reported in Gao, Anefis and Sevare as well as a prison in Kenieroba. The fighting, that started around 4:00 am (0400 GMT), came more than two months after the same groups staged attacks against the ruling junta in which the country’s defence minister was killed. (Photo by Souleymane AG ANARA / AFP)
In Gao, in the north, residents reported gunfire and “loud blasts” near an army camp.
In the central town of Sevare, “explosions rang out… around 5:00 am, though their origin is not yet known. Shortly thereafter, several aircraft were spotted flying over the area”, a security source told AFP.
The major Kenieroba prison complex, where militants are among those held, located a few dozen kilometres from the capital Bamako, was also under attack.
“We are under our beds, the gunfire continues,” a prisoner told AFP.
Mali has been battling an insurgency since 2012, with the conflict intensifying following the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers in late 2023 and the collapse of a 2015 peace agreement with Tuareg separatists.
