Tuareg separatists released six wounded Malian soldiers Sunday, they said, just three days after liberating dozens of others, as the insurgents and their jihadist allies battle the country’s military government.
Starting in late April, the JNIM and the FLA launched a series of assaults, capturing the northern city of Kidal and killing Mali’s defence minister. They also briefly captured the town of Anefis in fierce fighting in early July, among other assaults. On Thursday, Mali’s army announced that 82 of its soldiers had been released after being held hostage following capture by the FLA and allied fighters from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims .
The Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front said in a statement that it had “handed over six wounded Malian soldiers”, who had been taken prisoner during clashes with the armed forces, to a mission from the International Committee of the Red Cross . For its part, the ICRC said it had “facilitated the transfer of six injured people” from a health centre in the northern town of Kidal to the hospital in Gao, without specifying who the individuals were. The FLA said it handed over the six “in accordance with Islamic principles regarding the preservation of human dignity and the provisions of international humanitarian law”. The ICRC said in a statement that the operation “was carried out in full transparency thanks to security guarantees from all parties to the conflict and forms part of the ICRC’s role of neutral intermediary”.
