Latest news with #CollectivefortheDefenseoftheRightsoftheAzawadPeople
Arab News
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
At least 18 killed in airstrike on market in northern Mali, separatist group says
BAMAKO: At least 18 people have been killed in an airstrike in northern Mali, a separatist group said. The army said it had mounted an attack targeting armed militants. The Collective for the Defense of the Rights of the Azawad People, which is part of a Tuareg separatist coalition, said Monday the Malian army bombed a market 50 km (30 miles) north of Lerneb, in the Timbuktu region. Seven people were also injured in the strike on Sunday, the group said in a statement, denouncing a 'barbaric act from another age' and a 'flagrant human rights violation.' Mali's army said Monday in a statement on X it carried out air strikes on a 'refuge' in the same area cited by the separatist group, killing 11 'terrorists.' Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russian mercenary units for security assistance instead. Since seizing power in 2021, Col. Assimi Goita has struggled to curb violence in central and northern Mali, while the army has been accused of targeting civilians. Last month, the Front for the Liberation of Azawad, the coalition of Tuareg separatist groups, accused the Malian army and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group of 'coldly executing' at least 24 people in northern Mali. Last year, the rights group Human Rights Watch said in a report the army and Russian mercenaries killed at least 32 civilians, including seven in a drone strike, kidnapped four others, and burned at least 100 homes in towns and villages in central and northern Mali between May and December.
Arab News
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Strike on market in north Mali kills 18, civil society group says
Malian armed forces bombed a weekly market 50 km (30 miles) north of the city of LernebMali's army launched air strikes against what it called terrorist activity in the same area BAMAKO: An army air strike at a market in Mali's northern Timbuktu region on Sunday killed at least 18 people and injured seven, a local rights group said, while the army said it was targeting Collective for the Defense of the Rights of the Azawad People, which is linked to separatist Tuareg rebels, said Malian armed forces bombed a weekly market 50 km (30 miles) north of the city of army said on Monday it had launched air strikes against what it called terrorist activity in the same area cited by the rights group. It said in a statement on X that the strikes has 'neutralized' at least 11 Mali is rife with militant activity linked to Al-Qaeda and Tuaregs, an ethnic group who inhabit the Sahara region including northern Mali, are fighting for an independent launched an insurgency against Mali's government in 2012, but the rebellion was later hijacked by Islamist groups, setting off a violent insurgency that has since spread across West Africa's Sahel region and July last year, Tuareg rebels attacked a convoy of Malian soldiers and mercenaries of Russia's Wagner Group in the far north of the country, near the town of Tinzaouaten close to the border with Algeria. Dozens of Russian and Malian soldiers were killed in the attack, the rebels is not uncommon for Mali, which has been under military rule since a 2020 coup, to carry out air strikes on insurgent targets in the north of the least 21 people, including 11 children, were killed by drone strikes on Tinzaouaten in August, Tuareg rebels said. In October, a drone strike at a fair in Timbuktu region killed at least eight people, including children.
