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Mali’s army moved closer Saturday to the strategically important northern town of Kidal that is held by Touareg separatist and rebel groups, army and political sources said.
Since seizing power in a coup in 2020 the African country’s military rulers have made a priority of re-establishing sovereignty over all regions and Kidal could become a key battleground.
Mali’s military and Tuareg rebels said there had been deadly clashes on Tuesday in the northern town of Bourem, in a further sign of the unravelling of a 2015 peace deal.
The rebel alliance, called the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), has been fighting the army since August, a conflict unleashed in part by the departure of a United Nations peacekeeping mission that for years had helped maintain a fragile calm.
Relations with France, Niger’s former colonial power, degraded after Paris stood by ousted president Mohamed Bazoum following the July coup.
“France continues to deploy its forces in several ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) countries as part of preparations for an aggression against Niger, which it is planning in collaboration with this community organisation,” Niger’s regime spokesman Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane said on Saturday.
Army officers have appeared on national television in Gabon to say they have taken power.
They said they were annulling the results of Saturday’s election, in which President Ali Bongo was declared the winner.
Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) launched air strikes against “foreign armed groups” near its border with Chad.
LNA spokesperson Ahmad Mismari said it carried out the attack on Friday after earlier having announced an operation to secure the frontier. The army hit Chadian rebel positions on the Libyan side of the border before launching an airborne assault.
