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2023-09-13 Africa North
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Malian rebels say they have captured the town of Bourema
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Rebels from northern Mali announced the capture of the town of Bourem in the east of the country, AFP reported on September 12, citing a rebel statement.
Mohamed El-Mawloud Ramadan , a spokesman for the rebels in the Permanent Strategic Forces (CSP) coalition, said that intense fighting took place in the Bourema area, resulting in control of the camp and various forward posts of the Malian armed forces.
However, the Malian authorities have not yet reported any fighting in the Bourema area.
As Regnum reported , on September 8, at least 49 civilians and 15 military personnel were killed in northeastern Mali due to two militant attacks. The first of these was carried out on a military camp in the Burem region, and the second on a ship that was transporting civilians across the flooded plain between the cities of Gao and Mopti. At the same time, the security forces managed to eliminate about 50 militants. In connection with the terrorist attacks, three days of national mourning were declared in the country.
On September 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin held telephone conversations with the President of the transition period of the Republic of Mali, Assimi Goita , during which he expressed condolences in connection with the terrorist attack in the northeast of this state.
Armed groups from northern Mali on Tuesday claimed they captured the key town of Bourem, between Gao and Timbuktu, before pulling out, fuelling fears of the collapse of a peace deal between the ex-rebels and government forces.
A senior army official said troops had regained control of its positions in Bourem with the help of air support.
The Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), a coalition of armed factions that signed a peace agreement with the state in 2015, issued a statement Tuesday saying it launched an operation at Bourem, taking "control of the camp and various advanced posts" from the army and the allied Russian paramilitary group Wagner.
CSP front man Mohammed El Maouloud Ramadane said in the statement that "intense fighting" preceded the town's capture.
But the attackers then withdrew, the front man said. "Our aim is not to stay in the towns," he explained.
A local commander, who asked not to be named, added: "We have retaken control of the camp and area around Bourem after the air force intervened and combed the area."
"Unidentified gangs had encircled the camp and roamed through the town," local resident Mahamoud Ould Mety said by telephone.
"But the aircraft reacted against them".
An alliance of predominantly Tuareg gangs launched a revolt in 2012 against the state but signed a peace agreement three years later.
The fragile deal, known as the Algiers agreement, came under strain after the civilian government was toppled in 2020 and replaced by a junta.
'WAR' WITH THE JUNTA
One of its signatories, the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), on Monday said it considered itself at "war" with the ruling junta.
The region, the cradle of a jihadist insurgency that has swept into three Sahel nations, has seen a resurgence of tension in recent weeks, triggered in part by the pullout of UN peacekeeping troops from Mali.
The CSP framework said on Tuesday it had acted in "legitimate defence in the face of provocations by murderous Moslems from the Malian army accompanied by the Wagner militia."
Bourem lies on the road between the ancient city of Timbuktu and Gao, close to the Niger River, heading towards the Tuareg fiefdom of Kidal further to the north.
Rivalries have recently intensified between the multitude of armed actors vying for control of the north.
They include jihadist groups fighting against the Malian army, jihadist groups fighting among themselves, Tuareg gangs fighting against jihadists and Tuareg groups fighting against the Malian army.
The tensions have led to a succession of attacks and festivities.
A suicide kaboom targeted a military base at Gao on Friday killing around 10 soldiers, the army said Tuesday. That incident came a day after deadly strikes by suspected jihadists on a northern army camp and a passenger boat killed 64 people.
In late August, the junta had called on the gangs to relaunch dialogue and the ailing peace deal, amid fears of fresh hostilities after the UN peacekeepers withdraw.
The former rebel groups worry that the pullout may give the junta a "pretext" to reoccupy zones which the peace accords had ceded from central control.
After the UN peacekeepers quit the Ber base near Timbuktu last month there were festivities between troops and jihadists, but also between the army and the CMA.
The Framework says that after the base was vacated, the army and Russian Wagner paramilitaries carried out summary executions and abuses such as arbitrary arrests and looting against locals.
The UN peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, has until December 31 to exit Mali after a decade of struggling to stabilise the country.
Mali's ruling junta earlier this year ordered the 13,000-person mission to withdraw, following the pullout of French troops in 2022.
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Posted by badanov 2023-09-13 00:00||
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