Mali's army has said the situation is "totally under control" after terror groups and separatist fighters launched coordinated attacks on several towns and a prison early Saturday, months after a similar wave of violence weakened the military government.
The attacks began around 5 a.m. local time (0500 GMT).
On Saturday, they carried out their latest attack in the northern towns of Gao, Anefis and Aguelhok, plus the central town of Sevare and at a prison in Kenieroba near the West African nation's capital.
In late April, the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM terror group and Tuareg-led FLA separatists captured the northern town of Kidal and killed Mali's defence minister.
Since coups in 2020 and 2021, Mali has been led by the military, which promised to restore calm in the vast desert nation that has been grappling with a security crisis since 2012.
The Malian military, backed by Africa Corps, the Moscow-controlled paramilitary group, has intensified operations following the large-scale 25–26 April attacks.
The Tuareg FLA (Azawad Liberation Front) teamed up with JNIM terror group approximately a year ago, stepping up pressure on their joint nemesis, the country's military leaders.
"All these operations, which are intermediate steps pending a more spectacular assault, contribute to weakening and isolating the regime", Bakary Sambe, director of the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute, told AFP.
Army 'resistance'
The Malian army confirmed the rebel assaults on the four towns and Kenieroba on Facebook on Saturday morning, asserting that "these attacks were vigorously repelled" and that "the situation is completely under control."
However, sources consulted by AFP indicated that fighting was still ongoing at midday.
FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane told AFP that "several positions have fallen" in Anefis but that there was still fighting happening by mid-Saturday morning.
An Anefis resident told AFP that "armed groups are in the town, but the army is still putting up resistance. The camp (there) has not yet fallen".
The towns of Anefis and Aguelhok are the last remaining locations where Mali's army maintains a presence in the northern Kidal region, following the April attacks.
In the northern town of Gao, a strategic town key to controlling the region, residents told AFP of gunfire and "loud blasts" heard near an army camp.
"For now, the objective appears to be seizing and securing the north before moving further south", an associate at the Strategic Research Institute of the International Academy for the Fight Against Terrorism told AFP.
In the central town of Sevare, which houses a large army base and an airport, "explosions rang out... around 5:00 am, though their origin is not yet known. Shortly thereafter, several aircraft were spotted flying over the area", a security source told AFP.
The Kenieroba prison complex, where al-Qaeda-linked gunmen and others are held, also came under attack some 70 kilometres (40 miles) south-west of Bamako.
The Kenieroba Central Detention Centre is the largest modern penal facility in Mali, with a capacity of more than 2,500 prisoners.
Mali has been grappling with a security crisis since 2012 caused by armed groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and Daesh affiliates, as well as community-based criminal groups and separatists.
In their joint assault in April, the Tuareg rebels and the regional al-Qaeda affiliate took Kidal, which had been taken in November 2023 by the Malian army and allied fighters.
