Tuareg separatist fighters freed 22 Malian government soldiers on Sunday, some of them held for more than three years, security and junta sources said, continuing a run of releases in recent weeks.
Tuareg groups and their jihadist allies took dozens of troops captive during coordinated attacks in April and July. Those assaults also killed General Sadio Camara, the defence minister who steered the junta toward Russia and away from the West.
Mali has fought jihadist and separatist insurgents for more than ten years. The army took power in coups in 2020 and 2021, saying civilian rule had failed to stop the violence.
Releases have come in a cluster. On 13 August the army said 82 soldiers held since the April fighting had gone free. Three days later six wounded troops were handed over. Sources told Zoyols News on Saturday that two former Wagner Russian paramilitaries, captured two years ago, had also been released.
A security source said 22 soldiers walked free in the latest swap. A junta source put the figure at about 20. The Tuareg Azawad Liberation Front, the FLA, posted that troops had been freed but gave no number.
At least eight FLA fighters were released in return, the security source said. FLA spokesman Attaye Ag Mohamed said civilian detainees held in junta prisons, some for more than five years, had been let go under the deal. Another spokesman, Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadane, said it was eight civilians exchanged for the soldiers. Some of the freed troops were taken recently. Others had been held more than three years, the junta source said.
The army has struggled to hold the line in one of the world’s poorest countries. In April the FLA and the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, JNIM, seized Kidal in the north and killed the defence minister. In July the rebels briefly took Anefis in a fresh wave of attacks.
Two former Wagner fighters, seized two years ago in northern Mali, were freed on Thursday, security and diplomatic released on Saturday. They were captured in July 2024 at Tinzaouatene, near the Algerian border, after the Malian army and its Wagner partners were beaten back by the FLA’s predecessor and JNIM. Africa Corps, the Russian force that replaced Wagner, confirmed the release of Russian nationals held since 27 July 2024 by what it called a terrorist coalition of the FLA and JNIM. Fighters from both Wagner and Africa Corps have fought with the Malian army under the junta’s security deals with Moscow.
