BAMAKO, Mali
Mali's military and Tuareg rebels said there had been deadly clashes on Tuesday in the northern town of Bourem, in a further sign of the unravelling of a 2015 peace deal.
The rebel alliance, called the
Coordination of Azawad Movements, CMA, has been fighting the army since August,
a conflict unleashed in part by the departure of a United Nations peacekeeping
mission that for years had helped maintain a fragile calm.
But clashes appear to be
intensifying as both sides seek to control territory in areas recently vacated
by the U.N. Bourem is just 90 km (55 miles) north of the strategic city of Gao.
The general staff of the
Malian armed forces said 10 combatants on its side were killed on Tuesday
repelling an attack near Bourem and said 46 enemy fighters had been killed
during the operation.
The CMA said in a statement on
Wednesday that it had lost nine fighters and had killed about 97 Malian
soldiers. The group, formed by semi-nomadic Tuareg people, said it had attacked
four army positions around the town of Bourem and made away with vehicles,
weapons and ammunition.
CMA spokesperson Mohamed
Elmaouloud Ramadane earlier told Reuters that the rebels had briefly seized
control of a military camp in Bourem, but later retreated.
"I confirm the CMA took
control of the camp around 10 a.m. after very violent fighting," he said
on Tuesday. Reuters was not able to confirm independently what happened or any
death toll.
The general staff did not
mention the camp or refer to the CMA by name, but said the situation around
Bourem was under control. Surviving rebels withdrew toward the north, its
statement late on Tuesday said.
(FILES) Tuaregs fighters of
the Coordination of Movements of the Azawad (CMA) sit as they gather near
Kidal, northern Mali on September 28, 2016, where rival groups have clashed in
recent weeks over the country's shaky peace deal.
The Tuaregs have long
complained of government neglect and sought autonomy for the desert region they
call Azawad. A Tuareg uprising in 2012 was taken over by Islamist groups that
continue to attack civilians and the army.
The CMA signed up to a peace
deal with the government and pro-government militia in 2015. But tensions have
resurfaced since the military consolidated power in two coups in 2020 and 2021,
teamed up with Russian military contractor Wagner Group, and kicked out French
forces and U.N. peacekeepers.
Peace has never been easy —
tensions have often arisen between northern armed groups and the army since
2015, and last year a coalition of groups pulled out of talks.
Conflict between the army and
the rebels could worsen an Islamist insurgency in Mali, where groups linked to
al Qaeda and Islamic State control large areas.
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