By MondAfrique:  A column of armed vehicles from the Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), the Touareg rebel coalition driven out of Kidal, was attacked by fighters from the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) on Friday in the Ouagadou forest, while that it was heading south, Mondafrique learned from corroborating sources.  Around 30 men died in the confrontation on the Jihadists side and 18 on the CSP side.

Iyad Ag Ghali, the Tuareg emir of the GSIM, had recently sent an official letter to the CSP to forbid it from attacking the Malian army in the south of the country, which he considers to be his territory. The Ouagadou forest, located near the Mauritanian border, west of Timbuktu, is a stronghold of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

This event sheds light on the rivalries that emerged in November 2023, after the assault on Kidal by the Malian army and its Wagner auxiliaries, While AQIM was expected to come to the rescue of the CSP, it stayed clear from direct confrontation with the Malian army, confirming the divergent interests and strategies that exist between the two groups. CSP fighters seem to have decided to wage the war within the Malian authorities’ own territories, in the south of the country. The convoy that was attacked by GSIM was heading towards the Kayes region.