Tuareg rebels in northern Mali have claimed to have seized control of a military camp and posts in the town of Bourem after weeks of fighting against the national army and Wagner mercenaries, threatening to unravel a 2015 peace deal.
Tuesday’s capture of Bourem—situated between the ancient cities of Gao and Timbuktu—by the Tuareg rebel alliance called the Coordination of Azawad Movements comes as the military consolidated power in two coups in 2020 and 2021 and kicked out French forces and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali.
The region—the cradle of the armed rebellion that has swept into the Sahel region—has seen a resurgence of tension in recent weeks, triggered in part by the pullout of UN peacekeeping troops which helped in maintaining a fragile peace.
Tuareg rebels have accused Malian forces and Russian Wagner Group troops of violating the 2015 ceasefire.
France had intervened militarily in 2012 after armed groups linked to al-Qaeda had taken vast swathes of northern Mali following a Tuareg uprising. Armed groups have continued to carry out violent attacks on civilians and the army.
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