Mali’s Army Says it Has Taken Kidal from Tuareg Rebels, with Russia’s Help

Announcement comes after Azawad Liberation Front said it was carrying out a ‘controlled withdrawal’ from strategic northern town.

By AFP and Reuters

6 Oct 2026

Mali’s armed forces have entered the strategic northern city of Kidal, five months after separatist rebels seized it, following an air and ground campaign backed by Russia’s Africa Corps.

In a statement carried by state television on Tuesday, Mali’s transitional government said troops had “consolidated their positions” in the city, “supported by their Russian partners”.

It said the return followed “intense air-ground neutralization operations”.

But according to the armed groups that controlled the city, the Malian army entered Kidal on Tuesday without a fight.

The Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) movement announced earlier in the day that it had carried out a “strategic and controlled withdrawal” from Kidal. It cited the “disproportionate use of aerial assets by Russian mercenaries from Africa Corps”.

The group said the move was intended to “preserve human lives” and was a temporary measure.

The separatists seized Kidal, a Tuareg stronghold, in April, during coordinated attacks across the country with Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the regional affiliate of al-Qaeda. The attacks, which also killed Mali’s defence minister, posed the biggest test yet for the military leaders who took power in coups in 2020 and 2021.

Mali has been racked by a security crisis since 2012, fuelled by fighters allied with various armed groups, including al-Qaeda, the ISIL (ISIS) group and Tuareg separatists. After the coups, the military government turned away from Western allies and towards Russia for help in combating the groups.

It first relied on the Wagner mercenary group, which was replaced in June 2025 by Africa Corps, a force under the direct control of Russia’s Defence Ministry.

Malian troops and Wagner fighters had retaken Kidal from armed groups in November 2023, only to lose it again in April.

“A successful recapture… affirms the military-led government’s authority and boosts ⁠the army’s morale, particularly after several high-profile setbacks, both in the north and the central regions in recent weeks,” said Beverly Ochieng, associate director of Control Risks.

“This is also an opportunity for Africa Corps to reprise its role as the Malian government’s security guarantor after appearing to lose significant ground, including in ‌Kidal, since April,” she told the Reuters news agency.

But the change of control in Kidal is still largely “symbolic” and not “decisive” in Mali’s campaign against rebel groups, Ochieng added.