29.4.2026
Tuareg rebels said they intend to take northern Malian cities of Gao, Timbuktu and Menaka, following the capture of Kidal.
According to the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) a coalition of Tuareg separatists and Islamist insurgents, their ultimate aim is to take Bamako the Malian capital.
“The regime will fall, sooner or later,” the Tuareg separatist coalition’s Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane told AFP during a visit to Paris.
Ramadane said the rebel group’s “objective is for Russia to withdraw permanently from Azawad and beyond, from all of Mali”.
“We have no particular problem with Russia, nor with any other country. Our problem is with the regime that governs Bamako.”
Mali’s junta leader Assimi Goita, on Tuesday made his first public appearance since the weekend attacks, vowing in a televised address to “neutralise” those responsible.
“As I am speaking to you, security arrangements have been reinforced. The situation is under control and clearing operations, search efforts, intelligence gathering and security measures are continuing,” he said.
France on Wednesday urged its citizens to leave the West African country “as soon as possible” due to the “extremely volatile” situation on the ground.
The warning followed coordinated attacks over the weekend that killed Defence Minister Sadio Camara and saw rebel forces take control of the northern city of Kidal.
The attacks were the largest in nearly 15 years and brought together two former enemies – the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a Tuareg separatist group, and the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), an Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance. AFP