BAMAKO, Mali — Drone strikes by Mali’s military regime have killed eight Tuareg rebel leaders in the town of Tinzaouatine in the country’s north, a rebel spokesman said on Sunday. It was the first time since the uprising began in 2012 that so many Taureg leaders were killed in a single attack.


“Several synchronized drone strikes killed an Azawad leader in Tinzaouatine, near the Algerian border, on December 1, 2024,” spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane said in a statement.


Azawad is the term the separatists use for northern Mali. The separatists’ statement lists the names of eight Tuareg leaders, the best known of whom is Fahad Ag Al Mahmoud, secretary general of the Gatia, an armed Tuareg group.


Later Sunday evening, the General Staff of the Malian Armed Forces confirmed the deaths of the rebel leaders, whom it described as terrorists, “during a special operation.” The military statement was broadcast on the Malian national television channel ORTM.


“This is clearly a great loss for groups in northern Mali, as the victims include key leaders who have been influential in their communities,” said Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan think tank . It will further strengthen anti-sentiment towards Bamako, and the setback does not mean the fight is over.”


He said that “the junta has shown with these air strikes that it is not afraid to use the aerial assets (drones) it has acquired at any time.”


The attack by Mali’s military regime comes a day after armed groups in the north announced they were merging into a single political-military entity, now called the Azawad Liberation Front. The new group’s mission is “the total liberation of Azawad and the formation of the Azawad Authority,” Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for the groups, said in a Nov. 30 press release.



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