Jihadists and their separatist Tuareg-led allies have hit northern Mali, where government troops and Russian paramilitary forces are based, with fresh coordinated attacks – striking several towns and a prison, according to the army, residents and security sources.
Jihadists with the al-Qaeda linked JNIM and members of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) launched coordinated assaults at around 5:00 am on Saturday.
Attacks were reported in Gao, Anefis, Aguelhok and Sevare, as well as a prison in Kenieroba.
The latest fighting came more than two months after the same rebel groups staged attacks against the military-led government, hitting the airport in the capital Bamako, killing the defence minister and seizing a string of army bases in the north.
Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesperson for the FLA – an ethnic Tuareg separatist movement – told France's AFP that "several positions have fallen, but fighting [was] still underway inside the city" of Anefis in the northeastern Kidal region early Saturday morning.
A resident there contacted by AFP said that "armed groups are in the town, but the army is still putting up resistance. The camp [there] has not yet fallen".
Rebels gaining ground
Government and Russian troops deployed in Anefis in the wake of the April attacks in which the FLA and the regional al Qaeda affiliate seized control of Kidal town in a major blow to the ruling military junta.
In the central city of Gao, a local official said there had been gunfire and rockets launched at a military camp since before dawn on Saturday. It was not immediately clear which fighters were responsible.
The northern towns of Anefis and Aguelhok are the last remaining locations where Mali's army maintains a presence in the Kidal region, following the massive attacks of April 25 and 26.
In the central town of Sevare, "explosions rang out... around 5:00 am, though their origin is not yet known. Shortly eafter, several aircraft were spotted flying over the area", a security source told AFP.
The major Kenieroba prison complex, where jihadists, among others, are held, located a few dozen kilometres from the capital, Bamako, was also under attack.
"We are under our beds, the gunfire continues," a prisoner told AFP.
The FLA and JNIM have allied against Mali’s army and its Russian partners from Africa Corps, a Kremlin-controlled Russian paramilitary force that remained in Mali after the Wagner Group announced its withdrawal from the country in June 2025.
(with newswires)
