Mali: l'armée et les Russes reprennent la ville d'Anéfis dans le nord
Last Saturday, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and separatists from the ALF (Azawad Liberation Front), predominantly Tuareg, carried out new coordinated attacks from the north to the south of the country. They claimed control of the town of Anefis.
But Russian paramilitaries from the Africa Corps and some Malian soldiers entrenched since last Saturday inside a camp in the city continued the fighting.
Russian and army reinforcements arrived Thursday evening and recaptured the town located about 100 kilometers from Kidal, which was controlled by separatists and JNIM.
"I can tell you that the Malian troops and their partners from Africa Corps broke through the obstacles and came to Anéfis to reinforce our troops who were on the ground," a Malian military source told AFP.
Leaving from the large city of Gao, a convoy of dozens of vehicles, supported by air support, was able to reach Anéfis despite attacks by the FLA/JNIM coalition along the way.
"We decided to leave Anéfis for strategic reasons and to avoid civilian casualties," FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane confirmed to AFP.
"They brought in reinforcements from outside Mali. 95% of the adversaries were the Russians. The remaining 5% were militias from the north and the Malian army," says the spokesman, who claims responsibility for the death of an army colonel.
Earlier this week, Malian authorities, who are facing multiple attacks in this vast and difficult-to-control Sahelian country, received "equipment" destined for the North that arrived on a "military plane," according to an airport source.
During a major offensive by the FLA and JNIM coalition at the end of April, Tuareg separatists regained control of the strategic city of Kidal (north), a blow to the central government.
Mali has been gripped by a deep security crisis since 2012, fueled in particular by violence perpetrated by groups affiliated with the jihadist organizations Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, as well as by community-based criminal groups and Tuareg separatist movements. This is compounded by a severe economic crisis.
Since two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, the vast desert country has been ruled by military men who came to power on the promise of restoring security and preserving its territorial integrity.
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