A new, undeclared partnership between Tuareg separatists and an al-Qaeda-affiliated armed coalition is rocking Mali’s ruling junta and causing havoc across the country’s north.
Yet it remains unclear whether this collaboration has scope to become deeper and more official, or how long it will last.
On 25 April, Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) Tuareg separatists and Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam Wal-Muslimin (JNIM) fighters staged coordinated attacks on several Malian cities.
Sadio Camara, the defence minister, was killed in a suicide attack on his residence. And fighting has since been ongoing, with the rebels claiming control of the city of Kidal and strategic Tessalit military base in the northeast in recent days.
JNIM, a collection of armed groups from various Malian communities that formed an al-Qaeda-affiliated coalition in 2017, is blockading the capital Bamako and has called for a broad "common front" to "bring down the junta" and proceed with "a peaceful and inclusive transition".
The attacks, a Malian official told Middle East Eye, “were sudden and highly coordinated, targeting sensitive sites such as military bases and the airport, which disrupted the command structure”.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “the speed and simultaneity of the attacks exposed gaps” in the Malian’s government’s defensive coordination.
Mali’s military government, which took control after coups in 2020 and 2021, insists the situation is largely stable.
The official claimed the army, which is supported by Russia’s Africa Corps paramilitary force, “regained control within hours”.
Ahmed, a Timbuktu resident, said that clashes are still ongoing and members of the Africa Corps had been taken prisoner by the FLA.
“Kidal, Gao and surrounding areas are witnessing intermittent fighting, with some locations effectively under siege,” he said.
Tuareg separatist sentiments have endured in northern Mali for a century, with rebellions against the central state breaking out repeatedly since the colonial French exited in 1960.
The most significant was in 2012, when the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a secular separatist organisation, allied with religious conservative Tuareg group Ansar Dine to launch attacks on the Malian government, seizing the north and precipitating a coup in Bamako.
Despite declaring northern Mali an independent state named Azawad, the groups were defeated following infighting and United Nations and French military interventions.
Yet the fighters remained on the fringes of Mali’s society and territory.
Ansar Dine became the leading member of JNIM. Meanwhile, the FLA was founded in 2024, merging the MNLA’s remnants with other Tuareg groups.
Wary of the MNLA’s previous experiences with Ansar Dine, where stark differences emerged over the latter group’s hardline interpretation of Islam, the FLA largely kept JNIM at arm’s length.
Yet now, despite those ideological differences, there is clear evidence of coordination between the two groups.
Jibrin Issa, a writer and political analyst specialising in Sahel affairs, told MEE that the latest developments represent “a marriage of necessity from Azawad’s perspective, and an operational arrangement from al-Qaeda’s perspective”.
“The aim is to distract the Malian army in the north while jihadist groups push southwards to encircle the capital and open multiple pressure fronts simultaneously,” he said.
