The international coalition drove the Islamists out of their “northern capital”

The conflict in Mali has reached a turning point. International coalition forces led by French special forces drove the Islamists out of their positions in the north of the country and took the city of Gao, the so-called capital of the territories controlled by extremists. Although experts predicted a protracted operation for the French, they managed to win their first big victory over the militants surprisingly quickly.

Coalition troops on Saturday took control of the city of Gao, located 1,200 km northeast of the capital Bamako. This point was considered the main outpost of two of the three Islamist groups fighting in Mali - the Movement for Unity and Jihad in North Africa and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The groups united in their ranks representatives of the local black population and Tuareg nomads. The Algerian Islamists leading them recruit volunteers, giving the units the image of “Al-Qaeda for Africans.”

The operation in Gao lasted half a day: by evening they managed to capture the Islamist headquarters on the territory of a local hospital, which the militants occupied in the hope of avoiding air strikes. According to the plan developed by the French military, coalition forces hit the Islamists from the rear, organizing an offensive from Niger.

Gao was the biggest success for coalition forces since the start of the operation in Mali. Victory was achieved surprisingly quickly, without waiting for the full complement of the African contingent, whose participation in the operation was authorized by the UN Security Council. The city was taken by the forces of three armies - the Malian, the French and the Chadian army, and the participation of the Malian military was rather formal. Their units are quite weak and suffer from a lack of military equipment and discipline. And, according to the International Federation for Human Rights, in captured cities they are mainly engaged in looting - “robbing and intimidating” local Tuaregs.

The main striking force in the most successful Malian operation, as predicted by Kommersant (see issue of January 18), was the 2,000-strong Chadian contingent, which has extensive experience in combat operations in the desert. He, along with French special forces, will act in the vanguard during further military operations in the northern territories of the former French colony that remain under the control of the Islamists. And in the liberated settlements it is planned to place military garrisons of the countries of the Economic Community of West African States, which began to gather in Mali on Saturday.

Against the backdrop of the successes of the coalition forces, it became known about a split in the ranks of the Islamists. Some militants split from the Ansar al-Din movement, based in the northern city of Kidal, and announced the creation of their own organization, the Islamic Movement of Azawad, which condemns “all forms of extremism and terrorism” and seeks negotiations with the Malian authorities.

Maria Efimova

France and Chad began to win in Mali