The Malian army has captured the strategic town of Kidal, a stronghold of Tuareg separatists and a symbol of insubordination in the north of the country, the head of the ruling junta and the general staff announced on Tuesday, November 14. . The capture of Kidal, if confirmed, is a considerable symbolic success for the junta which took power by force in 2020.
“Today, our armed and security forces have seized Kidal,” said Colonel Assimi Goïta in a message read during a special flash on public television. “The FAMa (Malian armed forces) have taken a position in the city of Kidal,” said the general staff on social networks.
The army and the state had been virtually absent for years from this city controlled by predominantly Tuareg movements. The junta has long expressed its determination to retake the city.
The insubordination of Kidal and its region, where the army suffered humiliating defeats between 2012 and 2014, was a long-standing source of irritation in Bamako, including for the current junta, which has promoted the restoration of territorial sovereignty a priority.
The Malian state had barely regained a foothold in Kidal since May 2014. Malian forces were then driven out when a visit by the prime minister at the time, Moussa Mara, gave rise to clashes with Tuareg rebels, which had caused heavy losses in the ranks of the army.
Historical center of independence insurgencies and a crossroads on the road to Algeria, the city was emptied of a large part of its tens of thousands of inhabitants as the army approached, according to messages posted on social networks.
The army promises to ensure the safety of residents
The army called on the population for calm and serenity, adding that its operations were continuing. She assured that she had taken steps to ensure the safety of the residents, who she asked to follow the instructions of the soldiers.
According to two officers, who requested anonymity, interviewed by Agence France-Presse, the rebels left the city when the soldiers entered it. Another officer announced that the army controlled in particular the airstrip and the camp recently evacuated by the UN mission. No comment was obtained from the rebellion.
The collection and verification of information is complicated by the impossibility of accessing it due to insecurity and remoteness. Separatist rebels cut the telephone network in Kidal on Friday as the army advanced towards the city.
A large military column stationed since the beginning of October in Anéfis, approximately 110 kilometers to the south, set off at the end of last week towards Kidal. It advanced, supported by air assets, at the cost of battles whose human and material toll could not be established from independent sources.
Since August, northern Mali has been the scene of an escalation between various protagonists (regular army, rebels, jihadists). The withdrawal of the UN Mission, demanded by the junta, triggered a race for control of the territory, with the central authorities demanding the restitution of the camps, the rebels opposing it, and the jihadists trying to take advantage of it. to strengthen their hold. Minusma left its Kidal camp on October 31.
