Mali Tuareg rebels claim military base following clashes on Sunday

Mali’s northern Tuareg rebels said on Sunday that they had seized another military base from the Malian army following fighting in the north of the country.

The military base is the fourth taken in a series of attacks the rebel alliance, called the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), has carried out since August following the departure of a U.N. peacekeeping mission that for years helped maintain a fragile calm.

A Tuareg uprising in 2012 was hijacked by Islamist groups that were later driven out of the major towns by a French-led intervention in 2013.

The CMA signed a peace deal with the previous government and pro-government militia in 2015. But tensions have resurfaced since the military consolidated power in two coups in 2020 and 2021, teamed up with Russian military contractor Wagner Group, and kicked out French forces and U.N. peacekeepers.

Read more: Reuters