BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali’s army said it had taken the northern rebel stronghold of Kidal after carrying out a raid and inflicting heavy losses on armed groups on Tuesday.
“Today, our armed and security forces have taken over Kidal. Our mission is not complete,” the West African country’s interim President Assimi Goita said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Ethnic Tuareg rebels, who have long controlled much of the north from Kidal, last month seized a base vacated by the departing U.N. peacekeeping mission, raising the spectre of a showdown as the army headed north to take it back.
A spokesman for the rebels could not be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; writing by Anait Miridzhanian; editing by Edward McAllister and Mark Heinrich)
