Mali says 82 soldiers held since April attacks have been freed

Mali’s military said on Thursday that 82 soldiers who had been held prisoner since coordinated nationwide attacks in April by al-Qaeda-linked militants and a rebel group have been released.

The army announced the release in a statement aired on state television, saying the freed soldiers had been “held hostage” by al-Qaeda-linked fighters and a separatist rebel group in the northern region since the attacks.

A statement from the Malian Armed Forces said the freed soldiers “are now safe and being cared for by the relevant authorities.” The army described the operation as the result of “rigorous planning” and coordinated efforts to secure their freedom.

The soldiers’ capture stemmed from an April 25 alliance attack by JNIM and Tuareg separatists that struck the airport in the capital Bamako, the nearby garrison town of Kati, and several northern and central cities.

The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), the Tuareg-led separatist group, confirmed the release through a spokesperson, but it said in its own statement that it had freed about 80 Malian soldiers captured between 2023 and 2026, without explaining the discrepancy with the army’s account that the men had been held only since the April attacks.

FLA spokesperson Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane said the release was carried out for “strictly humanitarian” reasons, adding that some captives had been held since 2023 and that roughly 118 others remained in custody.

A source at Mali’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told AFP that the release was mediated by Algeria.

The announcement came the same day Mali’s junta made a separate, unrelated gesture of clemency: President Assimi Goita pardoned Yann Vézilier, a French national working for the French Embassy who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being accused of acting as an intelligence agent in a plot to destabilise the country.

The government said the pardon did not overturn the court’s findings and required his immediate removal from Mali.

The developments unfold against the backdrop of Mali’s decade-long conflict, in which the military-led government, in power since coups in 2020 and 2021, has expelled French and UN forces and turned to Russian support while continuing to battle both jihadist and separatist insurgencies.