Mali Army Breaks Rebel Blockade Around Strategic Anefis Base Amid Fierce Fighting

Mali's military announced on Friday that it has broken a rebel blockade around a strategic army base in the north, as the West African country's ruling junta battles a renewed offensive by separatists and al Qaida linked militants. The base, Anefis , sits between the separatist controlled town of Kidal and the town of Gao , which remains under the military government's control.

Late on Thursday, separatists from the Azawad Liberation Front , known as the FLA , said they had attacked a large convoy of reinforcements moving toward the base, made up of the Malian army, its Russian Africa Corps allies and local militias, cutting off Anefis in the process. By Friday, however, the separatists acknowledged they had withdrawn from the area following heavy fighting. The Malian army said that in the preceding 24 hours, twelve combat vehicles were destroyed and nearly a hundred fighters it described as terrorists were neutralised. The military did not provide an updated casualty toll for its own side, including losses sustained at Anefis.

The clash is the latest flashpoint in a security crisis that has intensified sharply since April, when coordinated attacks by the FLA and the al Qaida affiliated JNIM killed Mali's defence minister and led to the fall of several northern army bases, including Kidal itself. Anefis and nearby Aguelhok have since remained among the last positions where Mali's army maintains a presence in the Kidal region. Armed groups have also imposed fuel blockades on the capital, Bamako , straining supplies and power in recent months.

Mali, along with neighbouring junta led Burkina Faso and Niger , has cut ties with former colonial power France and moved closer to Moscow in recent years, forming the Alliance of Sahel States and a joint military force reported to number around 15,000 troops. The renewed fighting at Anefis underscores the continuing pressure facing the military government as it attempts to hold territory against a coordinated separatist and jihadist offensive that has repeatedly tested its control over the country's north.