A mainly Tuareg separatist coalition has claimed a major victory over Mali's army and its Russian allies following three days of intense fighting in a district on the Algerian border, Al Jazeera reported. Mali's military rulers, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, took power in 2020 and turned to Russia's Wagner Group of mercenaries for security assistance, after expelling French forces in 2022.

Tuareg are an ethnic group that has been fighting for Mali's independence since 2012. "Our forces decisively obliterated these enemy columns on Saturday," said a statement by Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesman for the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) alliance, on Sunday.