Mali's army and its Russian partners entered the northern city of Kidal on Tuesday, six months after separatist rebels and allied jihadists seized it, in what appears to have been a takeover without fighting. The Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) announced earlier in the day that it was pulling its forces out of the city.
"We have just arrived in Kidal ahead of schedule," a staff officer told AFP, and a second officer confirmed the arrival. According to RFI, about 120 vehicles left the town of Anefis in mid-morning carrying Malian soldiers, Russian troops of the Africa Corps, and fighters from the MSA and Gatia, Tuareg political-military groups integrated into the Malian army. The army had reinforced its positions at Anefis and Aguelhoc over the weekend. In a statement, the general staff said for the first time that it had carried out "large-scale air-land operations in the Kidal region" with its "Russian partners" to "neutralize armed terrorist groups" and restore security and freedom of movement for the population.
The FLA described its exit as a "strategic and controlled withdrawal", citing the need to protect the few civilians still in the city and calling it a temporary operational measure meant to keep its personnel and logistics intact. The group had taken Kidal in April alongside fighters from JNIM, an al-Qaeda-linked jihadist coalition. That offensive also killed Mali's defence minister, and the rebels briefly held the town of Anefis in early July.
Since April, the army has regularly bombed Kidal, destroying many buildings, and the strikes intensified from Sunday, with drone attacks also reported at Tinzaouatene near the Algerian border. The army speaks of "precision strikes" that neutralized many militants, while the FLA denounces "indiscriminate strikes" on civilian targets such as shops, homes and a bus station crowded with migrants and gold miners. No death toll has been independently verified.
Why this matters: Kidal, a desert city in Mali's far north, has long been the heartland of Tuareg separatism and a symbol of the state's weak hold on the region. Retaking it is a strong symbol for the transitional authorities, who were humiliated by April's defeat. The military has ruled Mali since coups in 2020 and 2021, promising to restore security, so far without success. The country has been in crisis since 2012, driven by jihadist groups tied to al-Qaeda and Islamic State, local criminal gangs and separatists.
Analysts urge caution. Bakary Sambe of the Timbuktu Institute, speaking to RFI, argued that the army has recovered territory but has not defeated its adversary. Kidal is now almost empty, as most residents fled in 2023 when the army and the Wagner group first advanced on it, and the FLA says it has kept its fighting capacity intact.