Opinion by Arezki Daoud:
The military junta in Mali is now confronted with the realities of war. It is battling on multiple fronts and not always winning. In the north, its policies and violent approach to problems have reignited a Tuareg rebellion. Mali’s government forces do not appear to do well facing the Tuaregs, despite the assistance of the ruthless and probably incompetent Wagner mercenaries.
The Tuaregs, who have long sought some autonomy for their region as part of a federal system of governance, were snubbed disdainfully by the junta in Bamako, which pushed for a new constitution that entirely rejected the idea of a federal model, giving the central government more power instead. As a result, the Tuaregs felt they could no longer abide by a peace agreement that previously controlled the two parties’ urge for war. That is until this new military junta showed up. This week, apparently the Tuaregs captured the town of Bourem, near Gao after heavy fighting against the national army, most likely aided by the Wagner mercenaries.
In the same region of Gao, the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) is also giving the Malian army hard time. Mali’s government had to recognize on Tuesday that it had lost around ten soldiers in an attack last week on a camp in Gao, an attack that was claimed by GSIM. A car bomb attack on September 8 “caused around ten deaths… among the Malian Armed Forces”.
So as we are now learning, it may be relatively easy to topple a mediocre and poorly protected president, but it is not so simple to govern. The regime in Mali clearly lacks foresight and rather than negotiating a deal to stabilize the country and win the hearts and minds of the Tuaregs and all other ethnic groups so as to unite against the Jihadists, it just jumps straight into the opportunity to start a new war and risk pushing the Tuaregs to the arms of the extremist militants.
Army-Tuareg war reignites in north Mali
Armed groups from northern Mali on Tuesday claimed to have captured the key town of Bourem, situated between the ancient cities of Gao and Timbuktu, after fighting against the national army. Authorities in Mali made no comment about the operation, which would confirm fears of a return to hostilities between the army and the northern groups and the end of a peace deal.
Rare reports from the remote region have drawn a confused overall picture, with witnesses talking of the army taking over, backed by the air force. But the Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP) — a coalition of armed factions that had signed a peace agreement with the state in 2015 — issued a statement saying it carried out the operation at Bourem, taking “control of the camp and various advanced posts” from the army and the Russian paramilitary group Wagner.
CSP spokesman Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadane said in the statement that “intense fighting” preceded the town’s capture. “Unidentified armed groups had encircled the camp and roamed through the town,” local resident Mahamoud Ould Mety said by telephone. “But the aircraft reacted against them. We can hear more firing, the FAMA (Malian Armed Forces) are everywhere in the town in numbers,” he added.
The alliance of predominantly Tuareg armed groups had from 2012 rebelled against the state but signed a peace agreement with the Malian government three years later. The fragile deal — known as the Algiers agreement — came under strain after the civilian government was toppled in 2020 and replaced by a junta.
‘War’ with the junta
One of its signatories, the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), on Monday said it considered itself at “war” with the ruling junta. The region — the cradle of a jihadist insurgency that has swept into three Sahel nations — has seen a resurgence of tension in recent weeks, triggered in part by the pullout of UN peacekeeping troops from Mali.
The CSP framework said on Tuesday it had acted in “legitimate defence in the face of provocations by terrorists from the Malian army accompanied by the Wagner militia.” Bourem lies on the road between Timbuktu and Gao, close to the Niger River, heading towards the Tuareg fiefdom of Kidal further to the north.
In late August, the junta had called on the armed groups to relaunch dialogue and the ailing peace deal, amid fears of fresh hostilities after the UN peacekeepers withdraw. The Framework groups worry that the pullout may give the junta a “pretext” to reoccupy zones which the peace accords had ceded from central control. After the UN peacekeepers quit a base last month there were clashes between troops and jihadists, but also between the army and the CMA.
The Framework says that after the base was vacated, the army and Russian Wagner paramilitaries unleashed violence, including summary executions and abuses such as arbitrary arrest and looting, upon locals. The UN peacekeeping mission, known as Minusma, has until December 31 to exit Mali after a decade of struggling to stabilise the country.
The 13,000-person mission was ordered to withdraw earlier this year under the demand of Mali’s ruling junta, following the pullout of French troops in 2022.
Mali army says about 10 soldiers died in suicide attack
Mali’s on Tuesday said it had lost around ten soldiers in an attack last week on a camp in the northern city of Gao that was claimed by Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists. In a post on its website, the army said a car bomb attack on September 8 “caused around ten deaths… among the Malian Armed Forces”.
The chief of general staff of the armies, General Oumar Diarra, visited the site on Sunday, it added. No death toll had previously been reported.
The Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) claimed responsibility for the incident the following day on the Al-Zallaqa propaganda platform. SITE, an American NGO specialising in monitoring radical groups, said four people carried out the attack.
It took place amid growing tensions between government forces and various armed actors, and a succession of attacks and hostile acts around Gao and the ancient city of Timbuktu. On September 7, at least 64 civilians and soldiers were killed in twin attacks in the north attributed to jihadists.
