Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesperson for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), told AFP during a visit to Paris where he met French security and defence officials that the group’s goal is for Russia’s Africa Corps to “withdraw permanently” from Mali.

Mali’s Tuareg rebels, who are involved in an ongoing insurgency that has included attacks such as the reported killing of the country’s defence minister, say they want the military government’s Russian allies removed from the country.

Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesperson for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), told AFP during a visit to Paris where he met French security and defence officials that the group’s goal is for Russia’s Africa Corps to “withdraw permanently” from Mali.

Russian fighters have supported the military government of President Assimi Goïta, which has faced coordinated offensives from an alliance of Tuareg separatists, Fulani and Arab rebel groups, as well as al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The coalition has carried out attacks and made territorial gains in several northern and central areas, including Kidal and Sévaré, and previously reached parts of the capital, Bamako.

“We have no particular problem with Russia, nor with any other country. Our problem is with the regime that governs Bamako,” Ramadane said, adding that the group was seeking support from France, the former colonial power whose troops were expelled by Mali’s military authorities in 2022.

He also said the rebels oppose Russia’s involvement, accusing Moscow-backed forces of supporting a government they claim is responsible for “serious crimes and massacres” since Goïta took power in a 2020 coup.

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