Around twenty Malian soldiers held by Tuareg rebels were released on Sunday, in an exchange with this rebellion which has multiplied its attacks against the army and the junta in power in Mali since the spring.

These releases were announced to AFP by a security source and another close to the junta.

The Tuareg-dominated Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) rebellion, which held these soldiers, only mentioned on Facebook "a few prisoners of war (from the Malian armed forces) released".

Some of these soldiers were captured recently and others had been held "for more than three years", a source close to the junta, which is at war with the rebels of the ALF and their allies in the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM, affiliated with Al-Qaeda), told AFP.

On April 25 and 26, JNIM jihadists and the FLA rebellion launched a series of coordinated attacks against strategic positions of the ruling junta and the army in several cities, including on the outskirts of Bamako, the capital.

These attacks notably cost the life of the Minister of Defense, General Sadio Camara, and led to the capture of several Malian soldiers.

In early July, jihadists and rebels launched new coordinated attacks against several towns and a prison. Several Malian soldiers were captured during these clashes, according to propaganda videos released by the JNIM-FLA coalition.

One of the poorest countries in the world, Mali, ruled by the military since two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, has been gripped by a deep security crisis since 2012.

"22 Malian soldiers were released this (Sunday) morning," the security source told AFP.

Information about their release was confirmed to AFP by a source close to the junta, according to whom "about twenty" soldiers were released.

This release was obtained "in exchange for at least eight FLA fighters," the security source said.

A spokesman for the FLA, Attaye Ag Mohamed, stated that it was done in exchange for that of "civilians detained" by "the criminal junta in its secret prisons, some for five years".

These "civilians" are "mostly in an unbearable physical and mental state," said Mr. Ag Mohamed.

This release of soldiers comes after that, on August 13, of 82 other soldiers who had been held since April by jihadists and their Tuareg rebel allies.

These Tuareg separatists had also released six wounded Malian soldiers on August 16.

In addition, two former fighters from the ex-Russian paramilitary group Wagner, captured two years ago in northern Mali during fighting against Tuareg rebels allied with jihadists, were released on Thursday, AFP learned on Saturday from security and diplomatic sources.

The two men were taken prisoner in July 2024 during the fighting in Tinzaouatène, near the Algerian border, where the Malian army and its Russian Wagner allies suffered a setback against the rebels of the Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), which became the FLA, and the jihadists of JNIM.

Africa Corps, the Russian paramilitary organization that replaced Wagner, confirmed in a statement the release of "Russian nationals detained" since July 27, 2024 by a "terrorist coalition FLA and JNIM".

The junta in Mali has turned its back on its Western partners and moved closer to Russia, whose Africa Corps paramilitaries are helping it in its anti-jihadist fight.