Mali ex-rebels
Fighters for The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), poses around heavy artillery in Kidal on August 26, 2022. – One of Mali’s main armed groups, The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), held a congress at the end of August 2022 in Kidal, to commit to the merger of all armed ex-rebel groups belonging to the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), who signed the peace agreement in 2015. (Photo by SOULEYMANE AG ANARA / AFP)

Home » Mali ex-rebels accuse army of new strikes on its positions

Mali ex-rebels accuse army of new strikes on its positions

Ex-rebels in northern Mali on Tuesday accused the armed forces of carrying out new strikes on their positions.

By AFP
29-08-23 17:22
in Africa
Mali ex-rebels
Fighters for The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), poses around heavy artillery in Kidal on August 26, 2022. – One of Mali’s main armed groups, The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), held a congress at the end of August 2022 in Kidal, to commit to the merger of all armed ex-rebel groups belonging to the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), who signed the peace agreement in 2015. (Photo by SOULEYMANE AG ANARA / AFP)

Ex-rebels in northern Mali on Tuesday accused the armed forces of carrying out new strikes on their positions, reflecting mounting tensions in the flashpoint region.

A spokesman for the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) told an AFP reporter that the armed forces carried out air strikes on the group in Anefis, in the Kidal region, for the second day running.

MALI EX-REBELS

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He did not give details of any losses.

Local elected officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that air strikes had taken place but did not give further details.

The CMA brings together predominantly ethnic Tuaregs who in 2012 mounted a revolt in northern Mali.

They were abetted by jihadists who later took their own insurgency into central Mali and then into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

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In 2015, the CMA and other parties signed a peace agreement with Mali’s then-civilian government that formally ended the regional rebellion.

The deal was hailed as historic, but it has always been fragile and parts of it remain unimplemented.

Its future became clouded after relations went downhill between the ex-rebels and the junta that seized power in 2020.

The two sides have lately fallen out over the future of a UN military base at Ber — one of a string of facilities that United Nations peacekeepers are scheduled to vacate as they withdraw from Mali by December 31.

On Monday, the government urged armed groups who signed the 2015 peace deal to “return to the negotiating table.”

But at the same time, armed groups accused the Malian army of bombing their positions at Anefis but without causing casualties.

MALIAN ARMY

The Malian army later published messages on social media saying they had “targeted a group of armed terrorist groups” and “neutralised” several combatants.

The junta “has definitively and deliberately opted for escalation towards open hostilities, with consequences that are inevitably disastrous,” the CMA said late Monday.

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The junta has pounded out a nationalist message since forcing out Mali’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubakar Keita, three years ago.

Its hardline approach and alliance with Russia prompted France in 2022 to withdraw its military forces from Mali, ending a nine-year-long anti-jihadist mission there.

France’s pullout is being followed by the UN’s decade-long peacekeeping mission MINUSMA.

ALSO READ: Al-Qaeda-linked group claims Mali attack on UN troops

The 13,000 member force this year was ordered to leave under pressure from the junta.

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