France urges citizens out as Tuareg rebels claim Kidal
France urged its citizens to leave Mali and warned against travel as fighting resumed in Kidal on Sunday after Tuareg separatists from the Azawad Liberation Front claimed to have captured the city on Saturday. The renewed clashes brought rebels and Mali's military junta back into direct fighting in the north while attacks also hit Bamako.
Kidal and the Azawad Liberation Front
Tuareg rebels said on social media: "Fighting resumed in Kidal this morning," and also said, "We want to drive out the last Russian fighters who have taken refuge in a camp." Their claim that the city had been taken on Saturday could not be independently verified. The rebels' move is part of a long fight for an independent state in northern Mali, with Kidal again at the center of that struggle.
On Saturday, the attacks began when Tuareg rebels teamed up with al-Qaeda-linked jihadis to launch strikes against Mali's ruling military junta. That coordination between groups that have fought on the same side before and later split apart has now put Kidal back into active combat after a period of relative calm around the city.
Bamako airport explosion
JNIM, the al-Qaida-linked group, claimed responsibility for explosions at Mali's main airport in Bamako. Mali's defense minister, Sadio Camara, was killed by a car bomb left outside his residence on Saturday, according to his family. At least three other family members were also killed by the explosion, according to a relative speaking anonymously to AFP.
The blast is believed to have been planted by JNIM, adding another front to the fighting that started on Saturday and spread from the north to the capital. For people in Bamako, the airport explosions and the killing at Camara's home raised the stakes well beyond a single battlefield in Kidal.
Guterres and ECOWAS
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply concerned by the resumption of fighting. His office said he strongly condemned the violence and stressed the need to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. Guterres also called for coordinated international support to confront violent extremism and terrorism in the Sahel and to meet urgent humanitarian needs.
ECOWAS condemned the attacks and called on states, security forces, regional mechanisms and populations of West Africa to unite and mobilize in a coordinated effort to combat the scourge. The public split between claims of territorial gain in Kidal and the documented fighting around Bamako leaves Mali's military leadership under pressure on two fronts at once, with the violence now linking the north, the capital and regional actors in a single crisis.
