BAMAKO — Fighters of Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the al-Qaeda-linked group, have reportedly set up checkpoints around Mali's capital, Bamako, and Tuareg separatists have seized the town of Tessalit in the far north, Al Jazeera reported on Sunday, citing news agencies. Reuters reported on Friday that JNIM had called on Malians to rise up to 'bring down the junta' and adopt Islamic law.
Source: Al Jazeera, Nov 1
The strongest evidence concerns Tessalit. Videos shared on social media by local accounts on Friday show armed fighters inside the Amachach base in Tessalit, with several military vehicles driving around, and video verified by Reuters shows fighters driving through the town and raising the flag of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). Media outlets close to the Azawad armed movement, which seeks independence for northern Mali, said the scenes show fighters in control of the base following the withdrawal of elements of the army and Russia's Africa Corps, according to their description.
A claim near the capital — and a denial
JNIM said on Thursday that it had captured the base of Hombori in central Mali and taken over two checkpoints near Bamako, after earlier threatening to completely besiege the city. Russia's Africa Corps, the Russian force that backs Mali's military government, said in a statement that the JNIM statement about the abandonment of the Hombori base was 'not true'. The checkpoints around the capital rest on the group's own claim and local reporting; they had not been independently confirmed.
The latest developments come days after a series of attacks by JNIM and Tuareg separatists of the FLA resulted in the killing of the country's defence minister, Sadio Camara. Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar in Senegal, said the absence of a response from the Malian military to the rebel advances was surprising, and that four major military camps in the north of the country are now in the hands of armed groups. Official authorities had yet to issue a statement on the latest reports at the time of writing.
Background: an attrition war across the north
The Soufan Center's October 28 IntelBrief describes the same alliance — Tuareg separatists of the FLA allied with JNIM — fighting an attrition war against the junta and its Africa Corps backers: government forces retook the northern town of Kidal on October 6 only after the FLA withdrew the night before, and a senior JNIM source told the Center the group 'is not seeking territorial control' but is conducting a war of attrition meant to overextend Mali's forces across the north, centre and west at once.
Source: The Soufan Center IntelBrief, Oct 28
What is solid
- Video verified by Reuters shows FLA fighters inside the Amachach base in Tessalit, raising the group's flag
- JNIM and FLA attacks days earlier killed Defence Minister Sadio Camara, as reported by Al Jazeera and Reuters
- Russia's Africa Corps has publicly disputed JNIM's account of the Hombori base
What is only claimed
- Whether JNIM fighters are manning checkpoints around Bamako — that rests on the group's own Thursday claim and local reporting, not independent confirmation
- Whether the Hombori base in central Mali was captured — JNIM says it was; Africa Corps says the claim is 'not true'
- Whether the Tessalit seizure will hold — Mali's authorities had not commented, and northern towns have changed hands before, including Kidal in October
Two different evidence levels sit inside this one story. The Tessalit seizure is backed by Reuters-verified video. The checkpoints near Bamako and the Hombori base capture are JNIM's own claims — reported here as claims, with Africa Corps' denial carried alongside. No Malian government statement had been issued when Al Jazeera published.