By Arezki Daoud: As I have been saying for a while, the Malian junta is leveraging its honeymoon period with Russia’s Wagner group and the withdrawal of the UN peacekeepers to unleash mayhem against the northern Touareg tribes. The army and Wagner mercenaries attacked Touareg positions in Ber on Friday, August 11, 2023. This has forced UN troops to flee the region, anticipating some action to take place there (see full story below). The Mali/Wagner offensive against the Touaregs started earlier, with reports that on August 4, the Malian army and Russian mercenaries launched an attack against the Touareg’s forward position in Foyta, killing two people.
UN force in Mali quits base early over insecurity
The UN peacekeeping mission in Mali on Sunday said it had brought forward its withdrawal from a base in the north of the country due to deteriorating security conditions. The MINUSMA force’s departure from Ber comes after the Malian army on Saturday said six soldiers died and 24 fighters from “armed terrorist groups” were killed in a skirmish in the area on Friday.
Former rebels from the Tuareg ethnic group also said the army and the Russian mercenary group Wagner attacked their forces in Ber on Friday. “MINUSMA has brought forward its withdrawal from Ber due to the degradation of security in the area and the high risks that brings for our Blue Helmets,” the force said on Twitter, recently rebranded as “X”. It called on “the different actors concerned to abstain from any act that could further complicate the operation”.
The number of troops involved or details on the original departure date were not specified. “MINUSMA has left Ber. The camp is fully occupied” by the Malian army “without incident”, a senior local security official told AFP.
The junta, which has ruled Mali since 2020 and pushed the UN Security Council in June to withdraw MINUSMA by the end of the year, has not reacted publicly. The mission, which had some 11,600 troops and 1,500 police officers in the country, began in 2013 after separatist and jihadist rebellions broke out in northern Mali the previous year. Its impending withdrawal from all of Mali has exacerbated tensions between the junta and the ex-rebels from the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA).
The CMA is an alliance of Tuareg-dominated groups seeking autonomy or independence from the Malian state and which controls vast areas of the north. It said on Saturday that the Malian army was “determined to occupy MINUSMA’s holdings at all costs, including those in areas under CMA control”, in violation of a 2015 peace deal.
On Thursday, the former rebels announced the departure of all their representatives from the capital Bamako for “security” reasons, further widening the gap with the junta. The CMA also criticises the military for having approved a new constitution in June, which it says compromises the preace agreement.
Mali’s junta has fallen out with former colonial power France and turned to Russia for political and military support. The deep security crisis that has engulfed northern Mali since 2012 has spread to the centre of the country as well as neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger
Six Malian soldiers killed in attack: army
Six Malian soldiers have been killed in an attack by “armed terrorist groups” in the north of the country, according to an army report. An earlier army statement on the incident had said one soldier was killed and four wounded in the attack in Ber on Friday. The death toll has risen to six, it said on Saturday, while “in their rout armed terrorist groups abandoned 24 bodies”. They also left behind AK-47 assault rifles and motorbikes, the army said. It said the clashes in the Timbuktu region took place after an “attempted incursion and harassing fire by terrorist groups against FAMa (Malian Armed Forces) units”.
The Malian troops were due to be stationed in Ber as part of a handover while the UN mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, prepares to leave the country, the army said. Mali’s junta, in power since 2020, pushed the UN Security Council in June to withdraw MINUSMA by the end of the year.
Tuaregs report army attack
Also in Ber on Friday, former Tuareg rebels said their forces were attacked by the army and the Russian mercenary group Wagner. The Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), which controls vast areas of the north, said in a statement to AFP on Saturday that there were “manoeuvres against its positions by the Malian armed forces accompanied by the Wagner militia”.
The CMA is an alliance of Tuareg-dominated groups seeking autonomy or independence from the Malian state. “The FAMa is determined to occupy MINUSMA’s holdings at all costs, including those in areas under CMA control, in violation of all the security arrangements guaranteed to date by the UN mission and the international community”, it added, referring to a 2015 peace agreement.
On Thursday, the former Tuareg rebels announced the departure of all their representatives from Bamako for “security” reasons, further widening the gap with the country’s military rulers. The CMA also criticises the military for having approved a new constitution in June, which it believes compromises the agreement. Mali’s military government has fallen out with former colonial power France and turned to Russia for political and military support. Since 2012, Mali has been in the grip of a deep security crisis that began with an Islamist insurgency in the north, which has spread to the centre of the country as well as to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
