The armed group of Malian Tuaregs, the Azawad Liberation Front, announced that after battles against government forces, it managed to occupy most of the city of Kidal in the north of the country, France 24 reports. Kidal was previously considered a rebel stronghold, but before this, the Malian army had taken control of it.
The situation across the country remains tense. In the city of Kati, near the capital Bamako, where the residence of Mali's leader Assimi Goïta is located, intense shootouts took place.
The Malian army stated that armed groups attacked several military installations in the country and fighting continues. According to witnesses, gunshots were heard in various areas, including near the international airport in the capital.
In 2012, Tuareg rebels already declared the creation of an independent state of Azawad in northeastern Mali and established control over a significant part of its territory. However, this entity was not recognized by the international community and lasted only about three months.
Later, attempts were made to resolve the conflict. In 2015, a peace agreement was signed in Algiers between the Malian authorities and Tuareg rebels. It provided for a cessation of hostilities and a political resolution to the conflict. However, in January 2024, the Malian government annulled this agreement, which again exacerbated the situation and led to a new increase in regional tensions.
The current Malian "transitional president" Assimi Goïta came to power in 2020 as a result of a military coup. Among other things, he holds power with the support of the Russian "Africa Corps," into which former units of the notorious PMC "Wagner" were transformed. The city of Kidal, taken by the Tuaregs, housed a military base of this corps.
The Tuareg, who are waging an armed struggle in Mali, are a large ethnic group descended from the Berbers, the indigenous people of North Africa. Traditionally, they were nomadic pastoralists. Tuareg inhabit vast territories of the African continent in several countries, covering the Sahara and extending from southwestern Libya to the southern regions of Algeria, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, all the way to the northern part of Nigeria. Their traditional social structure is clan-based and involves a caste hierarchy.
Today, the Tuareg are a semi-nomadic people who profess Islam. Thanks to them, this religion spread throughout North Africa and the Sahel region, which stretches from west to east Africa along the southern edge of the Sahara desert.
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