Moscow said Thursday its forces would remain in Mali, rejecting the rebels' call for a Russian withdrawal from the country as the ruling military junta faces an onslaught from separatist and jihadist rebels.

Published on: 04/30/2026 - 12:08 Modified on: 04/30/2026 - 1:08 p.m.

This is an end to receiving. On Thursday April 30, Russian authorities rejected the Malian rebels' call to withdraw from the country after last weekend's attacks. Russian paramilitaries have been a key supporter of the military junta in power in Mali since 2020.

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“Russia will continue, including in Mali, the fight against extremism, terrorism and other negative manifestations. And it will continue to provide assistance to the existing authorities,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday during his daily briefing.

Unprecedented attacks were launched on Saturday April 25 by jihadists from the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (Jnim) and the rebellion of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA).

On Wednesday in an interview with AFP, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, the spokesperson for the FLA separatists, called on Russia to withdraw "definitively from Azawad and beyond, from all of Mali". This group, made up of Tuareg, Fulani and Arab communities in particular, claims the territory of Azawad in northern Mali.

“All the confrontations we had with the Russians, we won,” he said.

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The FLA and JNIM seized the strategic town of Kidal, forcing the Russian paramilitaries of the Africa Corps to withdraw.

The Malian junta has moved closer politically and militarily to Russia in recent years after expelling the French military in 2022.

With AFP

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