Armed groups from northern Mali claimed in a statement on Tuesday the capture of the key town of Bourem, between Gao and Timbuktu, at the cost of fighting with the Malian army.

The Permanent Strategic Framework , an alliance of armed groups that had signed a peace agreement with the Malian state in 2015, said it had carried out an operation on the garrison town of Bourem which "resulted in the control of the camp and the various advanced posts" of the Malian armed forces and their ally the Russian paramilitary group Wagner .

There was "intense fighting" , said CSP spokesperson Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadane. No comment was obtained from Malian authorities. 

Such an operation would confirm the failure of the peace agreement signed in 2015 by an alliance of predominantly Tuareg armed groups who entered into rebellion against the central state in 2012, by the government and by loyalist armed groups.

After weeks of growing tensions, one of the signatories of the so-called Algiers agreement, the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), indicated Monday evening that it now considers itself at "war" with the junta which took power. by force in Bamako in 2020.

-Africa News