Tuareg rebels urge Russian forces to withdraw from 'all of Mali'
"Our objective is for Russia to withdraw permanently from Azawad and beyond, from all of Mali," the spokesman for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, told AFP in Paris.
Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition gather at the Kidal roundabout in Kidal, on April 26, 2026. April 25, 2026's shock attacks, synchronised by Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition and the jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), targeted several areas in the vast arid country. (AFP Photo)
PARIS — Tuareg rebels want Russian forces to withdraw from "all of Mali", a spokesman for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition told AFP on Wednesday, after Islamist insurgents and separatists launched attacks destabilising the west African country.
At the weekend, jihadists and Tuareg separatists, who have joined forces against the ruling junta and its Russian paramilitary backers, launched a stunning wave of attacks on strategic junta positions, including areas around the capital, Bamako.
The rebels captured the key town of Kidal in the mostly desert north, and Defence Minister Sadio Camara, seen as the mastermind behind the junta's pivot to Russia, was killed in two days of fierce fighting.
"Our objective is for Russia to withdraw permanently from Azawad and beyond, from all of Mali," the spokesman for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, told AFP in Paris.
"We have no particular problem with Russia, nor with any other country. Our problem is with the regime that governs Bamako."
He said the rebels viewed Russia's intervention negatively.
"It supported people who committed serious crimes and massacres," he said.
Russia's defence ministry confirmed this week that paramilitary fighters from the Africa Corps, controlled by the government in Moscow and sent to back up the Malian junta, had been forced to withdraw from Kidal in the north.
Ramadane said the Russians asked for a secure corridor to withdraw.
"The Russians found themselves in danger. There was no way out," the spokesman said. "Surrounded on all sides, they asked us to find them a solution."
"When they realised they could not hold out against our forces and our firepower, they requested these withdrawals," he said.
"In all the confrontations we had with the Russians, we won them all," he claimed.
Ramadane said that the ruling junta would eventually fall.
"The regime will fall, sooner or later," he said, adding that the rebels now intend to take control of Gao, Timbuktu and Menaka following the capture of Kidal.