Summary: The commander of the Malian army, General Jean-Elise Dao, announced today, Sunday, the death of about thirty of its members and the injury of about sixty others in fierce battles that took place during the past few days.
The commander of the Malian army, General Jean-Elise Dao, announced today, Sunday, the death of about thirty of its members and the injury of about sixty others in fierce battles that took place during the past few days with separatists to control the city of Al-Nafis in the north of the country, according to «Press Agency French
General Jean-Elyse Dau said in an interview with public television broadcast on Friday: "I regret the loss of about thirty people, about thirty martyrs. We also have wounded, about sixty people, including serious cases."
On Friday, rebels and a military source reported that the Malian army and Russian paramilitary forces from the Africa Corps (formerly the Wagner Group) had regained control of Nafis.
This came after extremists from a group linked to al-Qaeda and separatists from the Front for the Liberation of Azawad, the majority of whom are Tuaregs, launched coordinated attacks on July 4, extending from the north to the south of the country, initially announcing control of Al-Nafis.
However, elements of the African Legion and a number of Malian soldiers holed up inside a camp in the city continued to fight against the attackers, most of whom were elements of the Front for the Liberation of Azawad.
For their part, the separatists said in a statement yesterday that they inflicted "the greatest material and human losses in their history" on Malian soldiers and Russian fighters, during a battle that lasted, according to them, six days.
They added that they had lost "some of our finest sons," in a statement signed by the spokesman of the Front for the Liberation of Azawad, Muhammad al-Mawlid Ramadan.
Russian and army reinforcements arrived on Thursday evening and regained control of the city, which is about 100 kilometers from the strategic city of Kidal, which is under the control of separatists and extremists, according to financial military sources and the spokesman of the Front for the Liberation of Azawad.
Since two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, Mali has been under the rule of the military institution that came to power pledging to restore security and preserve the country's vast territorial integrity, which, in addition to rebellion, faces secessionist demands from the Tuaregs in particular.
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Original source: aawsat.com