Mali: Army Retakes Kidal Without a Fight, But the Question of an End to the War Remains

The Malian army, backed by its Russian allies, entered the city of Kidal in the far north of Mali on Tuesday without a fight, retaking control of a town that had fallen to the Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (ALF) six months earlier.

According to reports, the Malian Armed Forces and their allies entered the city in the early afternoon on Tuesday, meeting no armed resistance. The recapture is part of the strategy of the junta led by General Assimi Goïta to reassert state control over the country's north.

Whether the retaking of Kidal marks the end of the long-running conflict between the Malian authorities and armed groups in the north remains an open question, however. Kidal, a historic stronghold of Tuareg movements, has changed hands several times in recent years, and its military recapture does not necessarily resolve the underlying political tensions in the region.

Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Institute and researcher at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, Senegal, was asked about this development in an interview with RFI, in which he was invited to assess the true significance of this military advance for the future of the Malian crisis.

Developments in Kidal will be watched closely as Mali continues to navigate a security crisis marked by the presence of armed groups in the north and center of the country and by the withdrawal of Western partners in favor of deepened military cooperation with Russia.