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 were taken, he added.
The statement said seven separatist fighters were killed and 12 wounded in the fighting in Tinzaouatene district.
The 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 extremist 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 surrounded by Algerian territory and has been at the heart of other battles between separatist forces and the national army over the past decade.
No overall toll was available for the Malian army and its Russian allies, but the separatist spokesman shared videos with media 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 said 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 on patrol in Tinzaouatene district for three days had begun rearguard action between Friday and Saturday.
The army rarely communicates its losses, and pressure from the junta along with armed groups has silenced most independent sources of information in the areas of fighting.
Separatist groups lost control of several districts in 2023 after a military offensive that saw junta forces take Kidal.
There have been several accusations of rights abuses of the civilian population by the army and Wagner forces. Malian authorities have denied the allegations.
Violence by terroriists linked to Al-Qaeda and Daesh, as well as community self-defense and criminal organizations, has also rocked Mali since 2012.
A junta led by Col. Assimi Goita took power in 2020, citing the civilian government’s inability to stem the unrest, and broke the country’s traditional alliance with former colonial power France in favor of Russia.
