Bamako – Tuareg separatist rebels on Sunday freed 22 Mali government troops, some held for more than three years, adding to a steady flow of releases in recent weeks, according to security and ruling junta sources.
Tuareg fighters and their jihadist allies took dozens of soldiers prisoner when they launched coordinated attacks across the west African nation in April and July.
These attacks also claimed the life of General Sadio Camara, the country’s defence minister and the mastermind behind the junta’s pivot towards Russia and away from the West.
Mali has been battling jihadist and separatist insurgents for more than a decade and the military seized power following coups in 2020 and 2021, claiming the overthrow of civilian rule was justified by the need to end the violence.
There have been a number of significant releases in recent weeks.
On August 13, the army announced that 82 soldiers held by Tuareg fighters since the April battles had been freed. Three days later, six wounded troops were handed over.
Sources told AFP on Saturday that two former Wagner Russian paramilitaries captured two years ago had also been let go.
A security source on Sunday said that 22 soldiers went free in the latest exchange and a junta source confirmed that about 20 soldiers were involved.
The Tuareg Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) said in a social media post that troops had been freed but did not give a number.
Two Russians freed
At least eight FLA fighters were freed in exchange for the troops, the security source said. FLA spokesman Attaye Ag Mohamed said that “civilian detainees” held in the junta prisons, some for more than five years, had been freed under the deal.
Another FLN spokesman, Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadane, told AFP on Sunday that it was “eight civilians” who were released in exchange for the soldiers.
Some of the freed government troops had been captured recently and some had been held “for more than three years”, the junta source told AFP.
Government forces have struggled to contain the insurgency in one of the world’s poorest countries.
In their April assault, the FLA and the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) captured the northern city of Kidal and killed the junta’s defence minister.
The rebels briefly captured the town of Anefis in July when it staged new attacks.
Besides the army releases, two former fighters from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, captured two years ago in northern Mali were released on Thursday, AFP learnt on Saturday from security and diplomatic sources.
The two men were taken prisoner in July 2024 during fighting in Tinzaouatene, near the Algerian border, where the Malian army and its Russian Wagner allies suffered a setback at the hands of the rebels from the FLA’s precursor organisation and the JNIM’s jihadists.
Africa Corps, the Russian paramilitary organisation that has since replaced Wagner, confirmed in a statement the release of “Russian nationals detained” since July 27, 2024 by a “terrorist coalition of the FLA and JNIM”.
Fighters from both Wagner and Africa Corps have fought alongside the Malian army as part of the junta’s security agreements with Moscow.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, X and Instagram
Picture: Pexels
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Source: AFP
