Mali separatists claim major victory over army, Russian allies

DAKAR: A mainly Tuareg separatist coalition on Sunday claimed a major victory over Mali’s army and its Russian allies following three days of intense fighting in a district on the Algerian border.

“Our forces decisively obliterated these enemy columns on Saturday,” said a statement by Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesman for the CSP-DPA alliance. “A large amount of equipment and weapons were seized or damaged” and prisoners taken, he added.

The statement said seven separatist fighters were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting in Tinzaouatene district.

The West African nation’s military leaders who seized power in a 2020 coup have made it a priority to retake all of the country from separatist and jihadist forces, particularly in Kidal, a pro-independence bastion in the north.

Large-scale fighting broke out Thursday between the army and separatists in Tinzaouatene, after the army announced it had retaken control of several districts. The district is almost entirely surrounded by Algerian territory and has been at the heart of other battles between separatist forces and the national army over the pat decade.

No overall toll was available for the Malian army and its Russian allies, but the separatist spokesman shared videos with AFP showing several bodies lying on the ground believed to be from their side. In some of the videos, white soldiers are visible among the prisoners.

A local official and a former worker with the UN mission in Kidal told AFP the Malian army had retreated with at least 15 fighters from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group killed or arrested.

Mossa Ag Inzoma, a member of the separatist movement, claimed that “dozens” of Wagner fighters and soldiers had been killed or taken prisoner. But the army said its units that had been on patrol in Tinzaouatene district for three days had begun rearguard action between Friday and Saturday.