France has urged its citizens in Mali to leave the country “as soon as possible” amid continued attacks from Tuareg-led rebel forces, who have claimed the ruling junta will “sooner or later fall” and demanded that Russian forces also withdraw from “all of Mali”.
The security situation in the former French colony remains “unstable” after a coordinated attack by Tuareg-dominated separatists allied with the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), the French Foreign Ministry said.
In the biggest attacks in Mali in nearly 15 years, the rebel coalition, the Free Liberation Front (FLA), has captured the strategic northern desert town of Kidal and killed Defense Minister Sadio Camara, who is seen as the mastermind behind the military government’s turn away from the West towards Russia in recent years.
Mali: Russian Africa Corps admits loss
Russian troops from Moscow’s Afrika Korps, which provides security for the junta, acknowledged that they had suffered “sustained losses”, but gave no further details.
“Our objective is to permanently withdraw Russia from Azawad and beyond,” FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmouloud Ramadan said, referring to the northern part of Mali, where rebels want to declare an independent state.
“We don’t have any particular problem with Russia or any other country,” he said. “Our problem is with the regime that rules [in the capital] Bamako.”
Nevertheless, he said that Russian soldiers are still viewed negatively for their role in “supporting people who commit grave crimes and genocide.”
In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that Afrika Korps fighters had been forced to withdraw from Kidal, with Ramadan saying they had been moved out of the town.
He said, “The Russians found themselves in danger; there was no way out.” “When they realized that they could not stand against our forces and our firepower, they requested withdrawal.”
Rebels say Mali junta ‘will fall sooner or later’
Ramadan, who was due to meet French security and defense officials in Paris on Wednesday, claimed that FLA troops had won “all our confrontations with the Russians”, adding that they were no match for the Tuaregs who are defending their homeland.
He said, “Even if they are a powerful force, they will not be able to stand against the Azawadians, the masters of the area.”
The leader of Mali’s military government vowed on Tuesday to “neutralize” those responsible for the attacks, but Ramadan said the FLA also intended to “liberate” the cities of Gao and Timbuktu along the Niger River.
“To achieve peace, to achieve stability in Azawad, in Mali and beyond the Sahel, the first thing is to get rid of this junta,” he said. “The regime will fall sooner or later.”
Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru