Separatists in northern Mali have released 82 soldiers, including some taken captive during a nationwide attack on government forces in April, the Malian military and a rebel spokesperson said Thursday.
A statement from the Malian Armed Forces said that the "freed soldiers are now safe and being cared for by the relevant authorities." Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesperson for the separatist Azawad Liberation Front, confirmed the release.
Mali has been plagued for over a decade by insurgencies by militants affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, including JNIM, as well as a Tuareg-led separatist rebellion in the north.
Violence escalated in recent months after an alliance of JNIM and Tuareg separatists carried out coordinated attacks on April 25, targeting the airport of the country’s capital, Bamako, the nearby garrison town of Kati, and several northern and central cities.
Ramadane said that the soldiers were released on humanitarian grounds, and that some of them had been held captive since as long ago as 2023. He said around 118 Malian soldiers are still captive.
April’s attacks exposed weaknesses of Mali’s strategy to combat the rebellion, including relying on Russia, which has partnered with the military-led government after it distanced itself from former allies such as France.
The soldiers’ release was announced the same day Mali’s president pardoned Yann Vézilier, a French national sentenced to 20 years in prison. Vézilier, who worked for the French Embassy in Mali, was arrested in August 2025 and accused of being an intelligence agent involved in a plot to destabilize the country.
The Malian government said in a statement the clemency did not overturn the court’s findings and required the individual’s immediate removal from the country.
The French foreign ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
