Sawt Falasteen - Tuareg rebels in control of key Mali town after offensive

Two days of fierce fighting between the army and jihadists allied with the Tuaregs have plunged the junta-led west African country into uncertainty over the military government's future.

Defence Minister Sadio Camara has been killed and military ruler General Assimi Goita, who led the coup in 2020 that brought the junta to power, has not been seen or spoken publicly since fighting began at the weekend.

Several strategic towns and areas around the capital, Bamako, were targeted in a dawn offensive on Saturday by Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition and the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

The vast Sahelian country has seen more than a decade of violence. But analysts said the latest attacks were the most serious challenge to its rulers since a March 2012 offensive that was repelled by forces from former colonial ruler France, who have since left the country.

"We have left Kidal. We are no longer there. It's the jihadists and the FLA who are in Kidal," a source close to the governor told AFP on Monday.

Residents confirmed to AFP having seen Malian soldiers and their Russian mercenary backers leaving the town.

The FLA, a separatist group claiming the territory of Azawad in northern Mali, said at the weekend that it had "total" control of Kidal, marking a major blow to Mali's military junta.

They said Russian mercenaries from the Africa Corps, controlled by Moscow, would withdraw from Kidal.

Kidal, a pro-independence stronghold, was controlled by rebel groups for years before being retaken in November 2023 in an army offensive, supported by Russian mercenaries from Africa Corps' predecessor the Wagner Group.

- Military presence -

The army chief of staff told ORTM public television on Sunday that the military now planned a "redeployment" to Anefis, 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Kidal.

There was a fragile calm on Monday in Bamako and Kati, a garrison town and junta stronghold about 15 kilometres further north.

AFP journalists saw burnt-out cars and bullet scars in Kati.

Schools and offices were open in Bamako and checkpoints around the airport and military camps near the capital and Kati were lifted.

Heavily armed soldiers in combat gear were still present and the only aircraft entering or leaving the airport were military planes.

"We conducted sweep operations throughout the night, which allowed us to reduce the checkpoints," an officer in Senou, the district outside Bamako where the airport is located, told AFP.

"Now we are counting on the public to report any suspicious individuals in the neighbourhoods," he said.

- Mali 'in danger' -

The military government has declared two days of national mourning for Camara, the 47-year-old defence minister and a key figure in the junta.

He died on Saturday in a car bomb attack on his home in Kati, along with his second wife and two of his grandchildren, his family and an official said.

The general fought his attackers, "neutralising" several, but died of his wounds in hospital, the government said late on Sunday.

A Malian security source told AFP that junta leader Goita was in a safe place.

After seizing power, Goita had pledged to combat the jihadists and initially promised a return to civilian rule in Mali, which has gold and other valuable minerals.

The weekend attacks are the most serious challenge to the country's leadership since 2012, when Tuareg separatists seized control of Kidal, as well as the towns of Gao and Timbuktu, before being pushed out by their JNIM allies.

The junta said on Saturday that 16 civilians and soldiers had been wounded and there had been "limited" material damage.

It has not updated that figure and, given the intensity of the fighting, there are fears the toll could be higher.

The military said it had killed more than 200 "terrorists across all the areas attacked".

Several local media outlets voiced support on Monday for the military rulers.

But the opposition Coalition of Forces for the Republic said Mali was "in danger".

The junta had "promised Malians security, stability and the return of the state" but after the weekend offensive, nobody could seriously claim the country was either pacified or secure, it said.

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T.Ibrahim--SF-PST