Mali's military reportedly carried out air-strikes Aug. 29 against Tuareg militants in the desert north—an escalation that risks opening up another conflict front in the country, which is already embroiled in a long counterinsurgency war with jihadist rebels. The accusation was made by the Coordinating Body of Azawad Movements (CMA [13]), a coalition of Tuareg rebel groups that signed a peace deal [14] with the Malian government in 2015. The government claims to have struck jihadist positions in the Kidal region, but the CMA rebels charge that they were targeted [15]. Two weeks earlier, the CMA also accused [16] Malian forces and Russian Wagner Group [17] mercenaries of attacking its followers in the Timbuktu region.
Since the 2015 peace agreement, there has been an uneasy calm [19] between the Tuaregs and the government, but relations between the signatories have deteriorated [20] since a military junta took power [21] in 2020, followed by a second coup [22] in 2021. A UN peacekeeping mission has been a key guarantor of the pact, but is now leaving Mali [23] at the demand of the junta. (TNH [24])
