Mali’s forces target rebel alliance in junta’s fight to keep power | Mali

Mali’s armed forces, backed by Russian mercenaries, have launched airstrikes targeting the rebel alliance of Islamist extremists and Tuareg separatists as the ruling junta struggles to maintain its grip on power in the volatile West African nation.

Earlier this week, warplanes targeted the key northern town of Kidal, which was lost when rebels launched a surprise attack on much of Mali in late April.

Elsewhere, military helicopters piloted and supplied by Russia guarded convoys or airlifted supplies to remote outposts where the Malian military is making as yet ineffectual efforts to restore government authority.

The rebel offensive targeted strategic towns, government forces and their Russian aides with ambushes, car bombs, drones and raids, causing significant casualties. Malian defense minister Sadio Camara was killed and the chief of military intelligence was also killed in a suicide attack on his home in the garrison town of Kati, 9 miles (15 km) northwest of the capital Bamako.

Other attacks hit Mali’s international airport, while rebels took control of Kidal after soldiers fled and a Russian mercenary force surrendered. The defeat reversed the junta’s important symbolic victory in Mali three years ago.

Nina Wilén, Africa director at the Egmont Institute, an international relations think tank in Brussels, said the ruling military junta had shown some resilience after being badly shaken by a wave of rebel attacks.

“They are fighting back,” he said. “There hasn’t been a rebellion or a counter-coup. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but… they’re still fighting and that’s something to consider.”

But government forces have so far failed to retake much of the territory lost last month, despite the support of 2,000 to 2,500 Russian mercenaries sent by the Kremlin first to Mali, a former French colony. in 2021.

Eyewitnesses said that in the airstrike carried out by government forces in Kidal, only a house near an old market was destroyed and a crater was formed in the large courtyard of the governor’s building.

The rebel coalition, which unites the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the Tuareg-dominated rebel group the Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLA), continued its own military operations, striking dozens of military outposts in central and northern Mali and imposing a tight blockade on Bamako.

Analysts said the fuel blockade imposed by JNIM last year had caused serious problems for the junta, pushing it to the brink of collapse and the new blockade had “restricted” the capital. The city has a strict curfew and a number of arrests have been reported.

At a press conference in Bamako last week, Malian army commander Djibrilla Maiga claimed that at least two main routes out of the capital remained open and that Malian forces had “neutralised” hundreds of “terrorists” since the April attacks.

In addition to killing Camara by driving a car loaded with explosives to his home, the rebels last month also targeted the home of Assimi Goïta, the leader of the government that came to power after the 2020 and 2021 coups.

Hundreds of civilians have died in recent weeks in attacks on villages, mostly in the central Mopti region claimed by JNIM; Among the dead were many members of pro-government self-defense forces. A spokesman for JNIM said the villages were targeted after breaches of agreements with the group to offer support and avoid any cooperation with Malian authorities.

Wilen said the attacks were a reminder that JNIM remained “a terrorist organization and violent extremists” despite recent efforts to improve its image.

“JNIM does not cut off hands and feet as punishment for theft like the Islamic State [followers] Wilen said he is also doing some work to win the hearts and minds of those living in the Sahel who want to manage the population. “Under the coalition agreement, the FLA [Tuareg separatists] “They agreed that they would implement a moderate sharia regime.”

The Tuareg, a historically nomadic people spread across Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, have waged an armed struggle against marginalization for decades.

Islamic militancy has increased in the Sahel over the past 20 years due to fierce competition over limited resources, sectarian tensions, decades-long conflicts that have left large numbers of weapons unarmed, and the failure of governments to provide basic services or security.

last year almost 70 percent of deaths are due to terrorism occurred in only five countries globally; three of these were in the Sahel.

Another factor that accelerates this situation is the brutal counter-guerrilla tactics systematically implemented by the armed forces and Russian mercenaries throughout the region.

Wilen said Afrika Korps, as Russian mercenaries are called, were withdrawn from outlying positions to strengthen Bamako’s defenses.

“They are not a good partner for any country in Africa, but their main goal is to protect the regime and they have succeeded in doing that,” he said. “Goita is still in power. Bamako is still ruled by the junta.”

UN secretary-general António Guterres warned last week that the deteriorating security situation in Mali and throughout Africa’s Sahel region was leading to a humanitarian emergency “marked by increased violence against civilians, widespread displacement and increasing food insecurity.”

Guterres called for dialogue and cooperation among countries in the region against “violent extremism and terrorism.”