Mali's army retakes Anefis after a week of fighting, with about 30 soldiers killed

Mali’s army retook the northern town of Anefis after nearly a week of fighting, army chief General Jean Elysee Dao said, reporting about 30 soldiers killed and roughly 60 wounded . Tuareg separatists of the Azawad Liberation Front, alongside fighters from an al-Qaeda-linked group, had captured the town on July 4 as part of coordinated attacks across the country.

Anefis sits about 100 kilometers from Kidal, a stronghold of the separatist movement. The recapture is a tactical gain for Bamako’s military-led government, but the heavy troop losses underscore how contested northern Mali remains more than a decade into a security crisis in which separatists press for independence and jihadist groups hold sway over much of the countryside.

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