Mali: une trentaine de soldats tués lors de la bataille d'Anéfis (armée)
Around thirty Malian soldiers were killed and around sixty wounded in the fierce fighting that pitted the army against Tuareg separatists in recent days for control of the town of Anéfis, in northern Mali, the head of the Malian army said on public television.
"I deplore the loss of some thirty people, some thirty martyrs who have fallen. We also have wounded, around sixty, including some serious cases," said General Jean Elysée Dao in a recording sent to AFP on Sunday. The interview had been broadcast on Friday on Malian public television ORTM.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Tuareg separatists said they had inflicted on Malian soldiers and Russian paramilitaries "the heaviest material and human losses in their history in the region" during this battle which, according to them, lasted six days.
The Tuareg rebellion also claims, without giving a number, to have lost "some of its best sons", in this statement signed by its spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane.
The Malian army and Russian paramilitaries from the Africa Corps group have regained control of the town of Anéfis, rebels and a military source announced on Friday.
On July 4, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda, and separatists from the Azawad Liberation Front (ALF), predominantly Tuareg, carried out new coordinated attacks from the north to the south of the country, claiming to have taken control of the town of Anefis.
But Russian paramilitaries from the Africa Corps and some Malian soldiers entrenched since July 4 inside a military camp in Anéfis continued fighting against their assailants, mainly members of the FLA.
Russian and army reinforcements arrived Thursday evening and recaptured the town, located about 100 kilometers from the strategic town of Kidal, controlled by separatists and JNIM, according to Malian military sources and the spokesman for the FLA.
Starting from the large city of Gao, a convoy composed of dozens of military vehicles, with air support, was able to reach Anéfis despite attacks by the FLA/JNIM coalition along the way.
"The air and ground operations carried out made it possible to secure the route and the entry (of the convoy) into the locality, despite several clashes and ambushes carried out by armed terrorist groups," the Malian armed forces said on Facebook, claiming to have neutralized "nearly a hundred" fighters.
"We decided to leave Anéfis for strategic reasons and to avoid civilian casualties," FLA spokesman Mr. Ramadane confirmed to AFP.
During a previous large-scale offensive by the FLA/JNIM coalition at the end of April, the Tuareg separatists had regained control of Kidal, a blow to the central government.
Mali has been gripped by a deep security crisis since 2012, fueled in particular by violence from groups affiliated with the jihadist organizations Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, as well as community criminal groups and Tuareg independence movements.
This comes on top of a serious economic crisis. Since two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, the country has been run by military officers who came to power on the promise of restoring security and preserving its territorial integrity.
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