Rebels fighting for control of camp in northern Mali

AFP , Monday 6 Jul 2026

Jihadists and their separatist Tuareg allies were fighting in northern Mali on Monday to control the key camp Anefis, where Russian paramilitaries and the country's military junta have been holed up.

A general view shows traffic moving along a main road in Bamako, Mali. AFP

The Al-Qaeda-linked JNIM jihadists and Tuareg FLA separatists launched coordinated attacks in the region on Saturday, a little over two months after another major offensive in which they captured the strategic northern town of Kidal and killed Mali's defence minister.

The FLA claimed control of Anefis on Saturday, a location crucial to securing a grip on Kidal, which is about 100 kilometres (62 miles) away.

Russian paramilitaries from the Africa Corps and a few Malian soldiers are still inside a camp, and fighting was ongoing on Monday morning, according to the army.

"This morning, the rebels and their JNIM allies fired shells at the camp where the Russian fighters from Africa Corps and Malian army soldiers are entrenched. Last night, reports indicated that the Russians used kamikaze drones," a security source told AFP.

FLA reinforcements arrived in Anefis early Monday morning in several dozen armed vehicles, a local elected official told AFP.

Malian army reinforcements that had departed from the city of Gao further south on Sunday were forced to turn back after being targeted by the FLA, another security source told AFP.

"Between five and eight military vehicles" were destroyed in the ambush, according to Wamaps, a collective of west African journalists specialising in security issues in the Sahel.

On Sunday, the African Union said it "strongly condemned the coordinated terrorist attacks" and reiterated its "full solidarity" with the government in Bamako and the Malian people.

"These attacks are a stark reminder that terrorism and violent extremism continue to pose a serious threat to Mali, the Sahel and the African continent as a whole," said AU Commission chairman Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.

Since coups in 2020 and 2021, Mali has been led by the military.

Its junta leaders had promised to restore calm in the vast desert nation that has been grappling with a security crisis since 2012, but so far have mostly failed to deliver.

In their joint assault in April, the Tuareg FLA (Azawad Liberation Front) and JNIM (the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims) took Kidal, which had been seized in November 2023 by the Malian army and allied fighters from the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary force now replaced by Africa Corps.