More military bases are reportedly taken by the Tuareg rebels in Mali.
17 September, BAMAKO (Reuters) – Tuareg rebels in Mali’s north and the government forces clashed again on Sunday, with the latter claiming to have captured two government bases in the central town of Lere.
Since August, the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) rebel alliance has been fighting the army. This conflict was sparked in part by the withdrawal of a UN peacekeeping mission that had helped maintain a fragile calm for years.
As U.N. peacekeepers leave the West African country, however, fighting appears to be intensifying as both sides vie for control of territory in the country’s desert centre and northern regions.
The CMA claimed last week that it had attacked four army positions near the town of Bourem, capturing vehicles, weapons, and ammunition. The Tuareg people who make up the CMA are semi-nomadic. About 500 kilometres (315 miles) separate Bourem and Lere.
He said, “CMA took control of the two camps in Lere,” and CMA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane confirmed it.
Late on Sunday, Mali’s armed forces posted on social media platform X that an attack had occurred in Lere and that a response was underway. No further details were provided.
Neither side reported any casualties or damages from the fighting.
For a long time, the Tuaregs have demanded independence for their desert region, which they call Azawad, from the central government.
Islamist groups took control of a Tuareg uprising in 2012 and have since been attacking civilians and the military.
When the government and pro-government militia reached a peace agreement in 2015, the CMA joined them. In two coups in 2020 and 2021, the military consolidated power, allied with the Russian military contractor Wagner Group, and expelled French forces and U.N. peacekeepers, but tensions have flared up again since then.
