BAMAKO, July 10 (Reuters) – A Tuareg-led separatist group has begun withdrawing from Mali’s strategic northern town of Anefis after armed forces including members of Russia’s paramilitary Africa Corps pushed them out, a rebel spokesperson and the army said on Friday.
• The rebel group, the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), and the regional al Qaeda affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), at the weekend staged attacks on army positions across Mali, including Anefis.
• The strategic town links Gao, the north’s biggest city, to the town of Kidal which was seized by FLA fighters earlier this year.
• Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesperson for the FLA, told Reuters the group’s fighters on Thursday had decided to withdraw after a week of clashes with military convoys coming from Gao.
• Heni Nsaibia, senior analyst for West Africa of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project, said this week that the battle for Anefis would show whether insurgents can reverse the army’s most significant military gains since late 2023.
• Mali’s armed forces said in a statement on Friday they were continuing joint operations with Africa Corps across the country.
• In the previous 24 hours, the army had conducted 15 airstrikes, destroying 12 combat vehicles and killing around 100 insurgents, the statement said.
• The army also said its operations had made it possible to secure the route to Anefis.
• The FLA attacked two military convoys this week that were headed towards Anefis for reinforcements, two security sources told Reuters. The second convoy arrived last night, the army statement and Ramadane said.
(Reporting by Mali newsroom; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Philippa Fletcher)
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