Malian army eliminates senior terrorist leaders

By Oumar Sankare

BAMAKO, Mali (AA) – The Malian army announced Monday that it killed several commanders of terrorist groups during an operation in the northern town of Tinzaouaten in the volatile Kidal region.

The operation on Sunday neutralized several high-ranking members of the terrorist network operating in northern Mali, according to the army’s statement.

“These terrorists were involved in several targeted attacks against civilians and the FAMa (Malian Armed Forces), obstructing their mission to secure the Kidal region,” the statement said. It also noted that Tinzaouaten had served as a strategic base for planning and executing actions detrimental to the region’s security.

Boubacar Bocoum, a political analyst at the SENE Centre for Strategic Studies, commented on the development, saying: “There is a fear of the creation of another state like (that sought by) the Polisario. With the recent dissolution of several armed groups, there is a tendency to create a new entity.”

“The success of this operation demonstrates the determination of the Malian army to combat terrorism in all its forms and to strengthen national security,” he added.

In a related development, five armed separatist groups in Mali announced their alliance on Saturday, forming the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). The FLA seeks independence for part of northern Mali.

The alliance includes the High Council for the Unity of Azawad (HCUA), the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the rebel factions of the Azawad Arab Movement (MAA) and Imghad Tuareg Self-Defense Group and Allies (GATIA).

These groups, along with the Al Qaida-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and the Macina Liberation Front (FLM), are considered by the Malian government to be terrorist organizations.

Following the breakdown of a 2015 peace agreement between Mali’s transitional authorities and armed separatist groups and the subsequent deployment of the Malian army and its Russian auxiliaries into Kidal in November 2023, armed groups that had previously signed the peace agreement returned to rebellion.

The Tuareg rebel alliance known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-DSA) had been working to protect civilians in the north and to secure a "political and legal status" for the region, whether within or outside of Mali’s state framework.