Mali rebels seize key military camp as junta forces and Russians retreat

Bamako (AFP) – Mali's army and its Russian mercenary allies surrendered a strategic northern military stronghold to armed rebels on Friday, as Tuareg separatists and jihadists waged a unified front to bring down the country's junta.


Issued on: 01/05/2026 - RFI

FLA rebels assemble around a roundabout in Kidal on April 26, 2026. © abdollah Ag Mohamed / AFP/File

Forces at Mali's Tessalit military base, a "super-camp" near the Algerian border, surrendered and were scattering southward, an official from the Tuareg-dominated FLA separatist group told AFP.

The FLA's allies, jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), are calling for cooperation to bring down the junta that has run Mali since 2020.

Friday's assault follows large-scale, fatal attacks at the weekend by the separatist and jihadist rebels on key junta strongholds across Mali.

And it comes just one day after JNIM began a road blockade on the capital, Bamako. Only people already in the city were allowed to leave.

A security source in Gao, south of Tessalit, told AFP that "no clashes took place" during the rebel forces' capture of Tessalit, and that regular troops had already evacuated when the assailants entered.

A local elected official confirmed to AFP that the Russians had also abandoned their position there.

Tessalit serves as a strategic base due to its geographical location and features a well-maintained airstrip capable of accommodating helicopters and other large military aircraft.

It had hosted a significant number of Malian troops and their Russian allies, in addition to a substantial quantity of military equipment.

"Tessalit is the oldest base built by the colonial power (France)", a military officer told AFP, adding that its position in the far north offered "a panoramic view of the entire Sahara".

Push to take north

The coordinated weekend attacks marked the largest assault in the west African country in nearly 15 years.

The fierce fighting at various locations, including around Bamako, resulted in the death of at least 23 people and killed defence minister Sadio Camara, a key junta figure.

A government tribute was held for the 47-year-old minister on Thursday, who died as a result of a car bomb at his residence in Kati, a garrison town near Bamako.

During the series of attacks, the militants took the northern city of Kidal.

The Tuareg rebels later predicted they would conquer the country's north and the junta would "fall".

In recent years, Mali, like neighbouring junta-led Burkina Faso and Niger, has cut ties with colonial power France and moved closer to Russia.

Russia has sent in mercenaries to help fight a long-running jihadist insurgency.

The three west African neighbours banded together to form the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which created a joint force it says numbers some 15,000 men.

The government of Niger said late on Thursday that the three countries had "conducted intense air campaigns" following the attacks in Mali on Saturday.

While that assault marked a turning point in JNIM's fight against the Malian junta, it was far from the jihadists' only campaign in recent times.

Late last year, JNIM attempted to cripple the Malian economy by imposing blockades on the supply of petrol and diesel being trucked in from abroad, particularly from Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal.

Russia vows to keep forces in Mali despite warning from separatists to withdraw

Russia said on Thursday its forces would remain in Mali and continue backing the country’s military rulers, rejecting demands from Tuareg separatists to withdraw after surprise attacks forced Russian troops out of a key northern town.


Issued on: 30/04/2026 - RFI

Tuareg separatists from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) ride on the back of a truck in Kidal, on 26 April 2026. © AFP

Alongside jihadist forces, Tuareg rebels launched coordinated attacks across the country last weekend.

The offensive forced Russia’s Africa Corps paramilitary unit to pull out of Kidal, a strategic northern town that Russian forces helped the Malian army recapture from Tuareg rebels in 2023, prompting speculation about a wider pull-out.

A Kremlin spokesperson denied Russian forces were planning to leave Mali. “Russia is present there in connection with the necessity declared by the authorities,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

“Russia will continue, including in Mali, to fight against extremism, terrorism and other negative manifestations. And it will continue to provide assistance to the current authorities.”

Malian official accuses Russian forces of 'betrayal' after Kidal falls to rebels

Tribute to defence minister

Russian paramilitary forces provide key support to Mali’s military junta, which has been in power since 2020 and is battling insurgents in a long-running conflict in the north.

Defence Minister Sadio Camara, a central figure in the military government and the driving force behind Mali’s partnership with Russian mercenaries, was killed in an attack on his residence on Saturday.

On Thursday, a ceremony was held to commemorate Camara, who was killed when a truck packed with explosives was driven into his compound in Kati, outside the capital, Bamako.

Sadio Camara outside the Malian Ministry of Defence in Bamako on 19 August 2020. © AFP - MALIK KONATE

The service at the military engineering battalion's grounds in Bamako was attended by the defence ministers of Niger and Burkina Faso, which, together with Mali, form the Alliance of Sahel States.

Dressed in combat fatigues, junta leader Assimi Goita paid tribute to Camara by bowing before his coffin, draped in Mali’s flag.

The minister's funeral service was due to take place later on Thursday.

The 47-year-old, who received military training in Russia, was widely regarded as the architect of the junta’s turn towards Moscow and away from former colonial ruler France.

Separatist warning

Kati was one of a number of strategic junta positions that were attacked on Saturday by jihadist fighters from JNIM, a group linked to Al-Qaeda, and Tuareg separatists from the Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA.

A spokesperson for the FLA said it wanted Russia to "withdraw permanently" from all its positions in Mali.

During a visit to Paris on Wednesday, spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane told French news agency AFP that the rebels intend to take control of other strongholds including Gao and Timbuktu.

"The regime will fall, sooner or later," he said.

Mali has faced a security crisis since 2012, fuelled by violence from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, as well as separatist movements and criminal gangs.

Like neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, Mali has shifted politically and militarily towards Moscow.

Russia’s Africa Corps is overseen by the defence ministry in Moscow and succeeded the Wagner paramilitary force, whose founder Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash in August 2023, two months after leading a mutiny against Russia’s military leadership.

(with newswires)

Mali: France urges citizens to leave amid Tuareg advance

Matt Ford 

DW with Reuters, AFP

29/04/2026 - 

With Tuareg-led rebels saying the ruling junta in Mali will fall "sooner or later" and demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops, the French Foreign Ministry has called on French nationals to leave the country.

Paris says the security situation in the former French colony remains 'volatile'

Image: AFP

France has urged its nationals in Mali to leave the country "as soon as possible" amid continuing attacks by Tuareg-led rebel forces who have claimed that the ruling junta will "fall sooner or later" and demanded that Russian forces also withdraw from "all of Mali."

The French Foreign Ministry said the security situation in the former French colony remains "volatile" following a coordinated assault by Tuareg-dominated separatists allied with the al-Qaeda-linked Jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

In the largest attacks in Mali in nearly 15 years, the rebel alliance, the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), has captured the strategic northern desert town of Kidal and killed Defense Minister Sadio Camara, seen as the mastermind behind the military government's pivot away from the West and towards Russia in recent years.

Mali: Russian Africa Corps admits losses

Russian troops from Moscow's Africa Corps, who have provided security for the junta, admitted they have "sustained losses" but provided no further details.

"Our objective is for Russia to withdraw permanently from Azawad and beyond," said FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, referring to the northern part of Mali in which the rebels would like to declare an independent state.

"We have no particular problem with Russia, nor with any other country," he said. "Our problem is with the regime that governs [in the capital] Bamako."

Nevertheless, he said the Russian troops were still viewed negatively for their role in "supporting people who committed serious crimes and massacres."

In Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that Africa Corps fighters had been forced to withdraw from Kidal, with Ramadane saying they had been escorted out of town.

"The Russians found themselves in danger; there was no way out," he said. "When they realized they could not hold out against our forces and our firepower, they requested this withdrawal."

Mali junta 'will fall sooner or later,' say rebels

Ramadane, who was set to meet French security and defense officials in Paris on Wednesday, claimed that FLA troops had won "all the confrontations we had with the Russians" who he said were no match for Tuaregs who are defending their homeland.

"Even if they are a powerful force, they will not be able to stand up to the Azawadians, the masters of the terrain," he said.

The ​leader of Mali's military government vowed on Tuesday to "neutralize" those responsible for the attacks, but Ramadane said that the FLA also intends to "liberate" the towns of Gao and Timbuktu along the River Niger.

"To achieve peace, to find stability in Azawad, in Mali and beyond in the Sahel, the first thing is to get rid of this junta," he said. "The regime will fall, sooner or later."

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru


Matt Ford Reporter for DW News and Fact Check

ANTI IMPERIALIST UNITED FRONT 

Insurgent alliance strikes at heart of Mali’s junta, exposing limits of Russian protection


Mali’s ruling junta was reeling on Monday after coordinated attacks by separatists and al Qaeda-linked jihadists sparked two days of fierce fighting across the country. It was the most serious challenge to Mali's central government since a 2012 rebel offensive was pushed back by the intervention of French forces.


Issued on: 27/04/2026
By: Barbara GABEL/Benjamin DODMAN

Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) celebrate in Tidal after seizing control of the northern Malian city, on April 26, 2026. © Abdollah Ag Mohamed, AFP

Mali has been plunged into its worse security crisis in more than a decade after Tuareg separatists and al Qaeda-linked jihadist fighters joined forces to launch sweeping attacks on Saturday, delivering a huge setback for its ruling military junta and its Russian allies.

Insurgents struck the main army base outside the capital Bamako and killed General Sadio Camara, the country’s defence minister, further undermining the junta’s claim that it is restoring order to impoverished West African nation that has long battled Islamist militants and separatist rebellions. The violence also saw rebel forces drive Russian mercenaries out of the key northern city of Kidal.

© France 24
02:10

It was the most sweeping rebel offensive since 2012, when Tuareg separatists joined forces with Islamist groups and eventually seized control of two-thirds of the country. As fighters advanced on the capital, Mali’s government appealed to former colonial ruler France for reinforcements. After France helped oust the Islamists, the subsequent presence of French troops and a UN peacekeeping mission helped ensure a wary peace over most of the next decade.

A 2020 military coup in Mali saw relations with France deteriorate, and by 2022 France had withdrawn the last of its troops despite a jihadist resurgence.


But history now appears to be repeating itself, with many of the same players on the ground – alongside some new elements that further complicate Mali’s search for stability.
· Defence minister killed, key town captured

Several strategic towns and areas around Bamako were targeted in Saturday’s dawn offensive by Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and the al Qaeda-linked jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

Defence Minister Sadio Camara, seen as the military regime’s second-most-powerful figure and a key Moscow ally, was killed in an apparent suicide truck bombing on his residence in Kati, a garrison town near Bamako that serves as the junta’s headquarters.

JNIM fighters also struck near Bamako airport and in localities farther north, including Mopti, Sevare and Gao.

In another major blow to the junta, FLA rebels claimed “total” control of their historic northern bastion of Kidal, where they secured the withdrawal of junta-allied mercenaries from Russia’s Africa Corps, which has taken over from the Wagner paramilitary group in much of Africa.

General Assimi Goita, the military ruler who deposed Mali’s civilian government in a 2020 coup, has not been seen or spoken publicly since the start of hostilities.

“This is a dramatic setback for the Malian government and a new phase in the ongoing insurgency in the Sahel,” said Andrew Leibovich, a research fellow with the Clingendael Conflict Research Unit focusing on North Africa and the Sahel.

“The fact that they were able to assemble so many fighters, particularly in and around Bamako and Kati, without detection and without the government being able to stop them, indicates how tenuous the security situation is, even around the capital,” he added.
· JNIM and FLA: Who are the insurgent forces?

One of Africa's deadliest jihadist groups, JNIM formed in 2017 through the merger of five separate militant groups. It has been the main force behind a resurgence of jihadist attacks across several West African nations, including Mali’s neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger.

The group is believed to have around 6,000 fighters. Its leader is Iyad Ag Ghaly, the ethnic Tuareg head of the Ansar Dine Islamist group that took over the historic city of Timbuktu in northern Mali in 2012 and imposed sharia law there.

JNIM aims to establish Islamist governance across the Sahel. Its years-long insurgency broadened to economic warfare last year when it staged a fuel blockade that paralysed Bamako and large swaths of the country.

But experts have cast doubt on the group’s ability to govern.

“JNIM fighters don’t have the capacity to take and run a city like Bamako. What they are trying to do is to target major regime figures, destabilise the junta and perhaps spark an uprising,” said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel Program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

© France 24
01:32

Mali has been grappling with ethnic Tuareg rebellions since shortly after it gained independence from France in 1960. The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), officially formed in November 2024, is just their latest iteration.

Present across the Sahara region, nomadic Tuaregs are fighting for an independent homeland they call "Azawad". In 2012, it was the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) that first swept through northern Mali until its campaign was hijacked by Islamist groups.

Mali struck a peace deal with Tuareg separatists in 2015, but the military junta withdrew from the agreement in 2024, leading to a resumption of hostilities.

In July 2024, Tuareg fighters attacked a convoy of Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters in the north, claiming to have killed 84 Russians and 47 Malian soldiers. Ukraine's military intelligence service then suggested it had helped the Tuareg rebels carry out the attack by providing intelligence, and Mali responded by cutting ties with Kyiv.
· ‘A shaky, ad hoc alliance’

Saturday’s coordinated attacks mark the first time since 2012 that jihadists and Tuareg separatists have cooperated on this scale, providing the most concrete evidence yet of a rapprochement negotiated more than a year ago, according to FRANCE 24’s expert in jihadist networks Wassim Nasr.

“We now have proof that there is genuine coordination across the country: all these attacks took place simultaneously,” Nasr explained.

“The aim was not to bring down Bamako, but to tie down the army in order to cut off the north and gain control of it,” he added. “There is a clear coordination to resume fighting against the Malian junta, but also against the Russians."

An FLA spokesperson confirmed the coordinated push on Sunday, stating that JNIM “is also committed to defending the people against the military regime in Bamako”.

However, analysts caution that the two groups have relatively little in common aside from a common enemy, suggesting theirs could be little more than an alliance of convenience.

“They both know they can’t really force regime change on their own – that's why they are teaming up the way they did in 2012,” said Laessing. “The jihadists eventually got rid of the Tuaregs back then, so this is a very shaky, ad hoc alliance, and not something that can run Mali.”

· Twin blows for the junta

Saturday’s brazen attacks on the heart of government, coupled with the fall of Kidal, constitute major setbacks for a military junta that seized power in 2020 on a promise to stabilise the country and assert the central government’s control throughout its territory.

Kidal had long served as a stronghold of the rebellion before being taken by junta forces and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner. Its capture in late 2023 marked a significant symbolic victory for the junta and its allies in Moscow.

© France 24
08:14

The attacks on Kati and Bamako, and the killing of Defence Minister Camara, are “an even greater blow to the junta’s confidence”, said Paul Melly, Consulting Fellow on the Africa Programme at Chatham House.

“The fact that they could even launch a truck bomb at the house of the regime’s number two shows the fragility of the regime’s military hold. Even in Kati, basically the headquarters of the junta, they could not guarantee the security of their most senior figures,” he said.

“The reason the military junta took over from civilian authorities was because of the mounting insecurity in the region, under the promise that they would quell the violence. But the data shows that insecurity in Mali and across the Sahel region has only worsened,” added Folahanmi Aina, a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

He pointed to early signs of a “legitimacy crisis” for the regime.

“While part of the population remains supportive of the junta, we’re beginning to see an erosion of trust in its ability to address the situation on the ground and guarantee the safety and security of the Malian people,” Aina said.

· Russia's African ambitions undermined

The fall of Kidal and the failure to thwart attacks on Bamako and Kati have also exposed the limits of Russian military power in West Africa.

Russia’s Africa Corps confirmed its withdrawal from Kidal on Monday, acknowledging that “the situation in the Republic of Mali remains difficult”. Moscow also lost a key ally with the killing of Defence Minister Camara, a key architect of the rapid shift in alliances that saw the junta expel French and UN forces and turn to Russia for military support.

“The attacks show that Russian mercenaries only have a limited capacity, in stark contrast to the situation before the coup, when Mali had a military partnership with France and there was a very large UN peacekeeping force of 13,000-14,000 soldiers, many of them West African, which helped to maintain a basic degree of security and stability,” said Chatham House’s Melly.

© France 24
01:47

“The French never really had a chance to pacify this vast country and the Russians even less so,” added Laessing. “In fact, they (the Russian mercenaries) made the conflict worse by being brutal and not distinguishing between civilians and combatants, which has made it easier for jihadists to recruit fighters.”

The regime’s political isolation – and that of allied juntas in Burkina Faso and Niger, which have also severed ties with France and left the ECOWAS group of West African states – has left them with few other options to confront the security emergency, he added.

“Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are on a nationalist, anti-Western course and it is not clear who will want to engage with them,” Laessing explained. “I don’t think Europe or France will be willing or even welcome to put boots on the ground to help stabilise the situation, which is probably beyond a military solution anyway.”

Street battles and withdrawal of Russian mercenaries: Inside the 48-hour fall of Mali’s Kidal

The Azawad Liberation Front and the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) launched an offensive against several Malian towns on April 25. In the north, the city of Kidal was recaptured following a three-year presence of Russian and Malian forces. Verified footage offers a window into these two days of tensions.


Issued on: 27/04/2026 - 
By:  The FRANCE 24 Observers / Guillaume MAURICE

FLA rebels seen parading through Kidal after capturing the city. © Observers

Two and a half years later, the flag of Azawad – the Tuareg name for the northern region of Mali claimed by separatists of the FLA (Azawad Liberation Front) – is once again flying over the city of Kidal.

In November 2023, the Malian army seized the city alongside Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, now rebranded as Africa Corps. On April 25, separatists raised their flag in the city’s central square, claiming to have regained control.

FLA fighters pose in Kidal’s main square after seizing control of the city on April 25. Location: 18°26'48.17"N 1°24'32.56"E Source: X / Wamaps_news / Guillaumem_MRC

The assault began at 6am. Six Malian cities found themselves under fire. In Kidal and Gao, the offensive was led by a coalition comprising the FLA and the al Qaeda-linked Jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

A morning of heavy fighting on the outskirts of Kidal

An FLA commander told the FRANCE 24 Observers team that checkpoints at the city’s entrance fell within the first hour of fighting. The Tuareg rebel, originally from the area, said that the city fell to the coalition by early afternoon.

Around noon, a video shows vehicles belonging to the JNIM or the FLA circulating freely past a military camp north of Kidal. With a Starlink receiver mounted on the hood of their car, the armed men drove past the building without stopping.

An account supporting the FLA independence movement shared a video showing militants bypassing a military camp north of Kidal. Location: 18°27'27.73"N 1°24'4.54"E Source: Facebook / AlkassimAgAhouchel.1990

Within the city, fighting was concentrated around the police station, where Malian Armed Forces (FAMA) soldiers had taken up defensive positions. The building’s perimeter was breached at approximately 2pm.

Footage published on April 25 shows armed FLA militants parading a Kidal police car they have captured. Source: X / XNewsUncensored

Symbolic sites

Another symbolic victory was claimed as the Kidal governorate fell into the hands of separatists. This building served as the administrative headquarters for General El Hadj Ag Gamou, the governor of the region, following the Malian junta’s return in 2023. As the leader of the Imghad Tuareg Self-Defence Group and Allies (Gatia), Gamou has remained loyal to the junta.

By late afternoon, a pro-FLA account released a video showing independence forces hoisting their flag atop the building.

Footage shows FLA members raising the group’s flag atop the Kidal governorate. Location: 18°26'58.81"N 1°24'12.59"E source: X / Guillaumem_MRC

The FLA and JNIM also claim to have captured soldiers from the Malian army.
The former UN base south of Kidal: a strategic stronghold

Located on the southern outskirts of the city, the former camp of MINUSMA, the former UN mission in Mali, served as a strategic stronghold. While encircled and entrenched within the base, Russian Africa Corps mercenaries were reportedly targeted by drone strikes and mortar fire from the FLA.

To organise their evacuation, negotiations between the FLA and Russian forces reportedly began as early as April 25, according to the pro-independence source the Observers team spoke to. Russian troops were evacuated from the former UN base the following day, at approximately 4 or 5pm.

A comparison of satellite imagery captured on April 10 (left) and April 25 (right) reveals potential signs of fighting or fires. © Sentinel- 2 Copernicus


However, resistance from Africa Corps mercenaries also persisted on the fringes of Kidal until the evening of April 25. Our source within the FLA said the mercenaries and Malian troops, entrenched in a turret with precision rifles, were finally evacuated to the MINUSMA camp the following day.

Withdrawal of Russian mercenaries

At 5pm, the Tuareg commander claimed that the independence fighters had taken control of the camp’s exit points. He said the Russian mercenaries burned several installations and vehicles before pulling out.

Our team geolocated a video showing a convoy of vehicles from the Africa Corps mercenaries and the Malian army departing the MINUSMA base and heading north. However, it’s currently impossible to determine where the forces previously stationed in Kidal are repositioning.

This video was published on April 25 by a pro-FLA account. It shows the evacuation of vehicles from the Africa Corps and the FAMA. Location: 18°26'10.28"N 1°24'29.34"E source:X / BayeAg1 / Guillaumem_MRC

The retreating Russian column included heavy weaponry, such as several BM-21 Grad multiple-rocket launchers, and truck-towed artillery pieces.

The total number of casualties remained unknown after a day of intense fighting. While footage emerged on April 25 showing the bodies of Malian soldiers in Kidal, none of the combatant groups has disclosed their losses. Meanwhile, the Malian Armed Forces stated that “the hunt for armed terrorist groups continues in Kidal, Kati, and other locations across the country”.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY
France urges its citizens to quit Mali as junta faces major rebel threat

France urged its citizens on Wednesday to leave Mali “as soon as possible”, after military leader General Assimi Goïta said the country’s worsening security crisis was “under control” following major attacks by jihadists and Tuareg separatists.

Issued on: 29/04/2026 - RFI

Malian general Assimi Goïta in a televised speech to the nation, 28 April, 2026. © ORTM / AFP


France’s foreign ministry said the security situation remained “extremely volatile” after the weekend assaults on government targets in several cities, including Bamako. It told French nationals to plan a temporary departure using commercial flights still available.

Those still in Mali were urged to stay at home and remain in regular contact with family, while France repeated that travel to the country remained formally discouraged for any reason.

The warning followed coordinated attacks over the weekend that killed Defence Minister Sadio Camara and saw rebel forces take control of the northern city of Kidal.

Malian official accuses Russian forces of 'betrayal' after Kidal falls to rebels


French warning

Around 4,200 French citizens are registered with consular services in Mali, with officials estimating about 3,000 more are not registered. About two-thirds are dual nationals living in Bamako.

Goïta’s televised address on Tuesday was his first public appearance in three days, after his absence raised questions about his hold on power during one of Mali’s most serious security crises in years.

“As I am speaking to you, security arrangements have been reinforced. The situation is under control and clearing operations, search efforts, intelligence gathering and security measures are continuing,” he said.

Calling the unrest one “of extreme gravity”, he urged Malians to reject division and said the country needed “clarity, not panic”.
Major offensive

The attacks were the largest in nearly 15 years and brought together two former enemies – the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a Tuareg separatist group, and the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), an Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance.

They launched coordinated strikes on military positions across Mali, including around Bamako, in a major challenge to the ruling junta and its Russian military allies.

At least 23 people were killed in two days of fighting, a hospital source told the French news agency AFP. Camara, a central figure in Mali’s shift towards Russia, was among the dead.

Earlier on Tuesday, Goïta’s office released photographs of him visiting wounded soldiers and civilians, and meeting Russian ambassador Igor Gromyko, in his first public appearance since the attacks began.

Wagner replaced in Mali by Africa Corps, another Russian military group
Russian setback

Russia’s defence ministry said rebels who captured Kidal were regrouping. It also confirmed that Africa Corps, the Kremlin-controlled force sent to support Mali’s junta, had withdrawn from the city.

The loss of Kidal and reported army withdrawals from several positions in the Gao region have raised new doubts about the junta’s security strategy since Goïta seized power in 2020 promising to defeat Islamist insurgents.

Gao is one of Mali’s most important military strongholds after Kati, near Bamako, where several senior junta officials are based and which was also targeted during the weekend violence.

A spokesman for JNIM said in a video on Tuesday that militants were blockading roads into Bamako and Kati. “Anyone breaching this blockade... will face the consequences,” spokesman Bina Diarra said.

AFP said it could not independently verify whether the blockade was active by Tuesday evening.

(with AFP)

Mali's Tuareg rebels vow regime 'will fall', urge Russian forces to withdraw


A spokesperson for Mali's Tuareg rebel group Azawad Liberation Front pledged on Wednesday that the country's ruling junta "will fall" and said the group wanted to see Russian forces withdraw "from all of Mali" after weekend attacks by Islamist insurgents and Tuareg separatists targeting major cities.


Issued on: 29/04/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

A general view of Bamako, Mali, taken on April 25, 2026. © Aboubakar Traore, Reuters

Mali's ruling junta "will fall", a spokesman for the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) said Wednesday, after Islamist insurgents and Tuareg separatists launched large-scale attacks destabilising the west African country at the weekend.

"The regime will fall, sooner or later," the Tuareg separatist coalition's Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane told AFP during a visit to Paris, adding that the rebels intend to take control of Gao, Timbuktu and Menaka following the capture of the key northern town of Kidal.

Ramadane said the rebel group's "objective is for Russia to withdraw permanently from Azawad and beyond, from all of Mali".

"We have no particular problem with Russia, nor with any other country. Our problem is with the regime that governs Bamako."

The leader of Mali's military government, Assimi Goita, on Tuesday made his first public appearance since the weekend attacks, vowing in a televised address to "neutralise" those responsible.


France on Wednesday urged its citizens to leave the West African country "as soon as possible" due to the "extremely volatile" situation on the ground.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Is Israel’s ‘Buffer Zone’ Expansion A Bid To Control Lebanon’s Offshore Gas? – Analysis

Map of the Eastern Mediterranean region. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Global Energy Monitor, Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker, and the World Bank Group

 April 25, 2026

By Arab News

By Najia Houssari

Lebanon faces growing concern over what officials describe as potential Israeli encroachment onto its offshore energy resources, after the Israeli military published a map extending its buffer zone into the Mediterranean, raising questions about the fate of the Qana gas field.

The map, released by the Israeli army on April 19 amid a fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah, outlines the deployment of its forces following their advance into parts of southern Lebanon, which Israel said was intended to prevent direct threats to its northern towns.

Israel’s newly delineated “Yellow Line,” which marks the expanded buffer zone about 5-10 km into Lebanese territory, appeared to extend not only across areas south of the Litani River — where Israeli forces pushed deeper during the recent war — but also into maritime areas, including waters linked to the Qana gas field.

The development has triggered alarm in Beirut, particularly as Lebanon had secured exploration rights in Qana under a US-brokered maritime border agreement with Israel in 2022, following years of complex negotiations.

Analysts and observers warned that Israel’s expansion of its operational map into the sea could signal a shift toward asserting influence over offshore resources, mirroring what they describe on land as the doctrine of “forward defense.”

Lebanon now faces the challenge of how to respond to what it sees as a new threat to its sovereignty both on land and its offshore economic lifeline.

Retired Brig. Gen. Mounir Shehadeh, former head of Lebanon’s Military Court, said Israel would face significant challenges in attempting to control or exploit offshore gas resources.

“Control over gas fields is not that simple. A field is not just a maritime space,” he told Arab News, noting that fields such as Qana (Block 9) require extensive infrastructure, including drilling and production platforms and the involvement of international companies such as TotalEnergies.

He stressed that any temporary military control would not translate into the ability to extract gas or derive economic benefit.

“Maritime operations differ fundamentally from land occupation. Israel may assert military pressure, but it cannot legally operate gas fields unilaterally without the participation of international firms,” Shehadeh said.

Any company working in a disputed area without a formal agreement risks sanctions and legal disputes, he added, warning that the political and financial costs would be considerable.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he plans to establish a buffer zone extending from Lebanese territorial waters in the south to the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, via its Lebanese slopes.

In Lebanon, officials have described the move as Israel “reshaping the map of the region.”

Shehadeh warned that any attempt to seize Lebanese oil fields would amount to a major regional escalation and a direct threat to the Eastern Mediterranean’s economic infrastructure, one that could spark a far wider confrontation, not a one-off operation.

Addressing whether the maritime border demarcation prevents such a move, Shehadeh said that the 2022 agreement, mediated by US envoy Amos Hochstein, serves as a significant deterrent.

“It clearly defines the maritime boundary, Line 23, and implicitly recognizes Lebanon’s right to develop the Qana field,” he told Arab News.

There is also an indirect mechanism for sharing revenues in the event of a geological extension, but its boundaries remain to be determined.

The agreement, Shehadeh said, is not a full peace treaty, but what prevents military violations depends largely on political balance and deterrence, not just the law.

“To be more precise: the agreement makes it difficult for Israel to act unilaterally, but it does not prevent it on the ground if it decides to escalate.”

Lebanese Minister of Energy and Water Joe Saddi said the Israeli map “does not change any of the facts established by the maritime border demarcation agreement,” and that “the agreement remains in effect, with no official amendment.”

The maritime border demarcation agreement between Lebanon and Israel is legally binding on both signatories and has been registered with the UN.

Lawyer Christina Abi Haidar, an expert in energy and governance law, said it would be illegal for Israel to cancel it unilaterally.

“Legally speaking, any change to the agreement requires the consent of both parties,” she told Arab News. “The agreement also stipulates that any party objecting must file a complaint with the American side, which has not occurred. At this stage, no changes are permissible.”

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said in mid-March that the Israeli government was considering canceling the maritime border demarcation agreement.

Abi Haidar warned that no company would move forward with drilling operations while the country remains at war.

She said it remains unclear whether Block 9 has been formally awarded to the consortium or approved by the Lebanese government.

“Either way, as long as the country is in a state of war, this is no moment to be talking about investment,” she said.

Even if the fighting ends, any continued Israeli presence in the occupied border strip would require Lebanon to escalate the issue diplomatically, including at the UN and with the US as mediator, she added.

However, Lebanon’s situation is largely without precedent.

“Here you have a country technically at war with Israel, yet one that managed to strike a maritime demarcation deal through American mediation,” she said, pointing out that Israel has not signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea — a factor that complicated negotiations and ultimately led Lebanon to accept US involvement in reaching the current arrangement.

Israel, meanwhile, appeared to be seeking to establish a buffer zone stretching from the slopes of Mount Hermon in Syria to Lebanon’s territorial waters, a move that could give it significant leverage in future negotiations over offshore resources.

It also casts a long shadow over the maritime demarcation agreement with Lebanon and the fate of the oil and gas reserves lying beneath the seabed.

Shehadeh dismissed Israel’s Yellow Line as having no legal standing.

“It carries no weight under international law,” he told Arab News.

“It is a military and media tool aimed at creating new realities on the ground and expanding Israel’s room for maneuver.”

He said extending the line into maritime areas suggests an attempt to merge land and sea into a single “operational zone,” calling it a “bargaining tactic” rather than a legitimate claim of sovereignty, and an effort to sidestep the maritime demarcation agreement between the two countries.

On safeguarding Lebanon’s rights, Shehadeh stressed that neither legal measures nor military capabilities alone are sufficient.

“The equation is a mixture of the two,” he said, adding that diplomatic pressure, particularly from the US and Europe, remains essential, given Washington’s role as the agreement’s sponsor.

Shehadeh warned that any targeting of gas infrastructure could provoke a response from Hezbollah, underscoring the need to resolve the issue through agreement rather than force.

“So far, Israel has not completely broken the agreement because it realizes that doing so could trigger a wide confrontation and destabilize its own fields as well,” he said.

While Israel may exert pressure and maneuver politically and militarily, it cannot unilaterally seize or operate Lebanon’s gas resources.

“Lebanon’s real guarantees lie in the presence of international companies, American backing, and a balance of deterrence on the ground,” he added.

In January, before the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah broke out, Lebanon signed an agreement with a consortium comprising French TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy, and Italian Eni to explore for gas in Block 8.

Lebanon has divided its exclusive economic zone into 10 blocks for oil and gas exploration. Seismic surveys have been conducted across most of them, with the exception of Block 8, which lies adjacent to the disputed maritime border with Israel.

According to unofficial estimates, Lebanon’s offshore gas reserves are estimated at 96 trillion cubic feet, and oil reserves at 865 million barrels.

Israel and Lebanon extended their shaky ceasefire by three weeks on Friday, President Donald Trump said, as the US remained at a standstill in negotiations with Iran to end the Middle East war.

Trump announced the truce extension as he met with ambassadors of the two countries and despite recent Israeli strikes in Lebanon and fresh rocket fire from Iran-backed Hezbollah, which was not part of the talks in Washington.

“I think there’s a very good chance of having peace. I think it should be an easy one,” Trump told reporters. The truce had initially been set to expire on Sunday.

Hezbollah reacted dismissively to Trump’s statement, warning that it would respond to any Israeli attacks.

Ali Fayad, an MP for the party, said extending the ceasefire “makes no sense” in light of continued “hostile acts” by Israel, saying they gave “the resistance the right to respond at the appropriate time.”

 

Israel's Lebanon offensive threatens to unravel US-brokered gas deal and block Beirut's energy future

IDF's officially declared "Forward Maritime Defence Zone" absorbs disputed offshore territory, jeopardising a TotalEnergies-led exploration consortium awarded rights to Block 8 just months ago / bne IntelliNewsFacebook

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By Ben Aris in Berlin April 23, 2026

Israel's military occupation of southern Lebanon is threatening to upend a landmark 2022 US-brokered maritime border agreement and derail Lebanon's best remaining hope of tapping its offshore gas wealth.

On April 19, the Israel Defence Forces published an official Arabic-language map explicitly delineating what it calls a "Forward Maritime Defence Zone" extending diagonally into the Mediterranean from the Lebanese coast.

The map, bearing the IDF emblem and distributed publicly, places the Qana Gas Prospect within the declared zone — making the maritime dimension of Israel's southern Lebanon operation a matter of stated military doctrine rather than analyst inference.

A separate map distributed by researcher Ahmad Baydoun, drawing on IDF, UN and US State Department sources, confirmed that the IDF's declared maritime exclusion boundary runs northwest into the Mediterranean, encompassing the Qana Prospect in Block 9.

The IDF's on-land zone also covers dozens of Lebanese villages named on the official map, including the Christian villages of Rmeish and Ain Ebel, which are clearly labelled within the declared occupation area.

Israel has been explicit that it wants to occupy all of southern Lebanon as part of its Greater Israel project to create a buffer zone on its northern border.

The dry well that isn't the point

The map has been taken by many to infer that Israel is also in annexing gas deposits in the Qana Prospect and not just security issues.

But the energy dimension of Israel's Lebanon occupation is a bit more complicated than that. The Qana Prospect, which sits within the IDF's declared maritime zone, is not a producing gas field. Test drilling some of the blocks has come up dry.

TotalEnergies (NYSE: TTE) drilled in 2023 and found no commercial reserves, abandoning Block 9 entirely.

"There's no gas in the Qana prospect," noted Elai Rettig, an assistant professor in Energy Politics at Bar-Ilan University. "In 2023, TotalEnergies announced it did not find commercial gas reserves in that field and abandoned Block 9 entirely."

However, the same may not be true of Block 8, which lies further northwest of the IDF's published maritime line.

"The more interesting issue is Block 8, which is beyond this map, which Total wants to explore," Rettig added.

In January 2026, TotalEnergies announced it was redirecting its Lebanon exploration efforts to that block.

"Although the drilling of the well Qana 31/1 on Block 9 did not give positive results, we remained committed to pursue our exploration activities in Lebanon," TotalEnergies chief executive Patrick Pouyanné said earlier this year. "We will now focus our efforts on Block 8."

A consortium of TotalEnergies, Eni (BIT: ENI) and QatarEnergy — holding stakes of 35%, 35% and 30% respectively — signed the Block 8 exploration agreement with Lebanon in January 2026 and planned to begin 3D seismic surveys across 1,200 square kilometres.

If Israel moves to formally revise its maritime coordinates back to what is known as Israeli Line 1, a large part of Lebanese Block 8 could fall within disputed territory, effectively sending a warning to the consortium that exploration in parts of the block is untenable.

Lebanese Petroleum Administration president Gaby Daaboul had said Lebanon aimed to "step up exploration and achieve a commercial discovery to boost the economy and support sustainable development."

Energy Minister Joseph Saddi said Lebanon was working on its fourth exploration licensing round before the war started at the end of February. Both statements now look premature.

The 2022 deal under threat

The 2022 US-brokered maritime border agreement was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough for a region long locked in dispute. Under its terms, Israel obtained full control of the Karish field, while Lebanon received rights to the disputed area including the Qana Prospect — along with recognition that Israel was entitled to royalties on portions of the Qana field that overlapped with Israeli maritime claims.

Now Israel is moving the lines on the maps. The occupation zone now extends into Lebanese territorial waters, cutting approximately nine kilometres into Lebanon's exclusive economic zone according to researchers tracking the boundary.

If Israel formally revises its maritime boundary, Lebanon would retain legal options. Analysts note that in such a scenario Lebanon could demand adoption of Line 29 — the line it had abandoned in 2022 — which would give it the entire Qana area and approximately half of the Karish field. That outcome would represent a significant economic blow to Israel's existing energy infrastructure.

Israel's energy minister Eli Cohen has already signalled interest in revisiting the 2022 agreement, which was signed by the outgoing government of Yair Lapid and has long been contested by the Netanyahu coalition. During the 2022 election campaign, Netanyahu had threatened to "neutralise" the maritime border deal if elected. Now he has boots on the ground in Lebanon, the change in territorial ownership may be simply delivered as a fait accompli as part of the current military operation.

The Gaza precedent

The energy dimension of Israel's Lebanon operations has prompted comparisons to Gaza Marine, the gas field discovered approximately 36 kilometres west of Gaza City in 2000.

Containing an estimated 28.3 to 39.6bn cubic metres of natural gas, it has been stalled for decades. The field is owned by the Palestine Investment Fund and Consolidated Contractors Company. Although Israel approved its development in June 2023, ongoing conflict has rendered any near-term exploitation impossible, and Palestinian access to the resource remains effectively blocked by Israeli security control over the maritime area.

Israel and Cyprus have made major offshore gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean — including the Leviathan and Aphrodite fields — highlighting the region's geological potential and the enormous value of controlling maritime territory in these waters. The question now being asked in Beirut, Paris and Doha is whether Lebanon will ever be permitted to join them.

Israel's buffer zone in Lebanon won't stop Hezbollah's fibre optic drones

Hezbollah's adoption of fiber-optic guided drones, immune to electronic jamming, threatens to negate the strategic rationale behind Israel's ten-kilometre security zone. / bne IntelliNewsFacebook

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By Ben Aris in Berlin April 24, 2026

 

Israel’s security buffer zone in southern Lebanon is supposed to be a shield against Hezbollah missile and drone attacks that have battered its northern communities for months. But even if the IDF occupies the entire territory that won’t protect it from attack by fibre-optic drones.

The US-Israeli coalition appears to have learnt nothing from the conflict in Ukraine that has seen the rapid development of drone warfare. Traditional air defences have proven ineffective against drone swarms in the asymmetric warfare tactics that has changed the face of modern warfare. Israel may have more sophisticated US-made interceptor missiles but facing swarms of some 200 drones or more for each interceptor missile, defences are easily overwhelmed.

The fibre-optic -controlled drones, reportedly made in Ukraine, are even more deadly. Developed by Russia before being adopted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the fibre-optic control wires mean these drones are totally impervious to electronic warfare (EW) countermeasures. The only way to stop them is to shoot down each drone individually, one-by-one.

Ukraine supply controversial

Hezbollah is now deploying these fibre-optic controlled drones and Israeli newspaper Haaretz claims they are Ukraine-made, but there is no confirmation.

They could also be Russian-made, produced in the upgraded Iranian factories or domestically assembled by Hezbollah itself. As IntelliNews reported, the members of the CRINK alliance (China, Russia, Iran and North Korea) have been sharing military technology with Iran, which in turn may be passing this technology to its regional proxies. Iran has long armed Hezbollah to act as its proxy in Lebanon.

Ukraine has sent advisors to Gulf states contending with Iranian Shahed drones, demonstrating it is willing to share drone expertise. However, there is no confirmed evidence of Ukraine supplying drones or components directly to Hezbollah, which would be politically extraordinary, given Ukraine's dependence on Israeli-aligned Western support.

On March 27, Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's Centre for Countering Disinformation, stated there was "information that the proxies may be receiving assistance from Russians, including instructors from the Wagner PMC," adding that "the more active use of FPV drones by Iranian proxies points to deeper Russian involvement, which may include providing instructors and mercenaries."

He was careful to frame this as an assessment rather than a proven fact The Times of Israel reported.

The Knyaz Vandal Novgorodsky fibre-optic FPV drone, built by Russian volunteers, was first deployed in Russia's Kursk region to counter Ukrainian incursions in August 2024, with elite Russian fibre-optic units achieving ranges of 20-30km by late 2024. Russia has both the technology and the motive to transfer it to Hezbollah via Iran.

It is also not unlikely that Hezbollah has been given the technology to assemble the drones itself. Hezbollah operatives already assemble FPV drones using components purchasable online or produced with 3D printers, with warheads based on RPG charges or grenades. This has been confirmed by multiple sources.

The technology is clearly Ukrainian/Russian in origin, but the fibre-optic drones could be homemade on a small scale in kitchen factories, similar to how Ukraine produced drones in the earlier stages of its war with Russia.

This week, the IDF released a map of its intended occupation zone, that includes all of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River and beyond, that it has dubbed the “Forward Maritime Defence Zone” that includes a block extending into the sea that includes offshore gas fields.

Within days of that declaration, the fibre-optic technology, refined on the battlefields of Ukraine, was already demonstrating why the zone may offer less protection than its architects had hoped.

Writing in Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli publication that has been critical of Israel’s military campaigns in Lebanon and Gaza, defence analyst Oded Yaron argues that fibre-optic guided drones — cheap, precise, jam-resistant and with rapidly increasing range — are being transferring from Ukraine to Lebanon at a pace that the Israeli defence establishment did not anticipate and has not yet solved.

"Over the past three years, while Israel has been absorbed in its own wars, the drone revolution in Ukraine has advanced at a breakneck pace," Yaron writes. "But in the latest round of fighting with Hezbollah, something changed."

The technology

The fibre-optic drone is a first-person view (FPV) drone guided not by radio signal but by a spool of ultra-thin cable that unspools as the drone flies, maintaining a direct physical connection between the operator and the aircraft. That cable — which can extend up to 10 to 20km— makes the drone completely invulnerable to electronic warfare jamming systems, which have no effect on a physical connection. Radio-controlled drones can be detected by radar and jammed; fibre-optic drones cannot.

Electronic spoofing was effective against Iranian-made drones in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel last summer, but Tehran learnt its lessons from that conflict. It has abandoned using the US-controlled GPS satellite system since then and switched to China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system that has made its drones impervious to Israeli EW countermeasures and a lot more accurate, allowing these drones to penetrate Israel’s famed Iron Dome defences. The introduction of Russia/Ukraine style fibre-optic drones would represent another innovation lifted from the war in Ukraine against which Israel or America have not developed any effective defences.

The number of reported FPV assault drones attacks using optical fibres has escalated dramatically in just the last few weeks, The Jerusalem Post reported, citing Israeli defence officials.

The drones are also cheaply made using 3D printers and armed with RPG charges or grenades. Their affordability gives Hezbollah an practical way to attack Israel and negates the advantage Israel has with a much larger defence budget. This is an entirely different economic proposition from the anti-tank missiles the IDF's buffer zone was principally designed to defeat.

Both Israel and the US have armed themselves for the wrong war. The Russian-made Kornet missiles, which generally require a relatively direct line of sight, and Iranian-made Almas missiles, typically limited to a range of around eight kilometres, cost tens of thousands of dollars per unit and require supply chains that run through Iran. Drones have no such constraints.

Hezbollah has released dozens of videos of assault drones striking Israeli armoured vehicles and military installations, including Merkava Mk.4 tanks, a D9 Caterpillar armoured bulldozer, and what appears to be a rare Namer heavy infantry fighting vehicle. In early report as the IDF moved into Lebanon, Hezbollah reported it destroyed over 20 Merkava tanks in a single day in a move that echoes the early days of the Ukraine conflict when small teams of Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) armed with US-made Javelin shoulder launched missiles destroyed Russian tanks with impunity.

Nevertheless, the technology arrived in Lebanon via a well-documented route. There are indications that Hezbollah has learned from Russian and Ukrainian experience in utilising fibre-optic guided drones to evade Israeli electronic interference, fuelling speculation that a sharing of experience between Hezbollah and Russian forces may have taken place.

"Military commanders believe 2025 is the 'year of the fiber-drone,'" with Ukrainian officers describing the current goal as increasing their range even further, with some spools already reaching beyond 20 kilometres, Yaron claims,

Fiber-optic -controlled drones are already in use at ranges of 20 to 30 kilometres, and beyond in Ukraine as the drone arms race between Russia and Ukraine continues to unfold.

"Based on past experience, it is likely that long-range fibre-optic drones will soon reach this region as well," Yaron writes. That trajectory points to a weapon that could strike Israeli targets from positions well behind the forward defence line — negating the strategic geography on which the buffer zone is premised.

The widespread use of drones in Lebanon could be a gamechanger. The Ukraine conflict has already shown that a smaller, weaker army can effectively bog down a much larger and heavily armed invading force and make infantry advances impossible. While the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR) outguns and outmans the AFU, as drones have a 50% kill-rate, following through on assault with infantry advances to occupy territory becomes impossible, as was illustrated in the recent battle of Pokrovsk in Ukraine, where the AFR took the city but has been unable to occupy it due to constant at-distance deadly drone attacks on its men.

The buffer zone's logic — and its limits

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz described the security zone last week as "extending 10km from the border to the 'anti-tank line,' stretching from the Mediterranean coast in the west to the Mount Hermon area in the east, in order to remove infiltration threats and defend against direct fire on communities."

Katz’s remarks highlight that the IDF is still thinking in terms of countering anti-tank missiles and has not taken into account the threat of Hezbollah’s drones. Ukraine’s European allies made a similar mistake when they finally supplied the AFU with Germany’s state-of-the-art Leopard II tanks that were supposed to be a gamechanger in that conflict. However, the Leopards proved to be ineffective as they were overwhelmed by Russia drone swarms and since have been held in the rear. One destroyed Leopard tank is currently on display on Red Square in Moscow to rub the point in.

The IDF has acknowledged that Hezbollah likely possesses more advanced versions of its anti-tank missiles, with ranges of up to 16km and the ability to overcome line-of-sight limitations. The buffer zone was calibrated with those weapons in mind. But drones threaten to turn the whole of southern Lebanon into a kill-zone for the IDF.

The effective operating range for a fibre-optic drone is about 20km which has created a no-go zone of those dimensions along the Russian/Ukraine line of contact in Donbas. The distance between the Israel-Lebanon border, the Blue Line, and the Litani River, is between 20-30km, increasing to 30-35km at its widest point at the eastern end. That puts almost the entire Forward Maritime Defence Zone within effective drone range – deadly drones that can be operated by small teams hidden in positions tens of kilometres away from their targets. A Hezbollah unit positioned north of the occupied buffer zone could, in principle, fly a fibre-optic drone south across the line of contact and strike Israeli targets with precision at will.

"The implication is that Hezbollah could soon possess a cheap, flexible and precise weapon, resistant to electronic warfare, capable of 'leapfrogging' the 'anti-tank line' in southern Lebanon," Yaron concludes.

Israel's response

The Israeli defence establishment is aware of the problem. The IDF has moved to purchase thousands of FPV drones of its own as drone warfare reshapes the battlefield, but it is still playing catch-up.

Israeli defence companies are simultaneously developing dedicated interception and protection solutions for fibre-optic threats, though no system has yet demonstrated reliable operational effectiveness against them.

Ukraine has made the most progress in dealing with the problem and has developed a new family of interceptor drones that it has been rolling out this year, but it is also locked in an arm race with Russia, which continues to develop its own counters. For example, Russia has recently rolled out the Geran-5 jet powered drone that doesn’t rely on fibre-optic control, but travels so fast it is almost impossible to stop, and has an upgraded electronic guidance and communication system that makes it largely impervious to EW countermeasures.

Fibre-optic drones are cheap enough to be produced in volume by a non-state actor, require no sophisticated supply chain beyond commercially available components, and cannot be neutralised by the electronic warfare systems in which Israel has invested heavily.

Former Ukraine commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi summed up the changes in modern warfare in a recent opinion piece: “The large-scale changes that have occurred on the battlefields of the Russian-Ukrainian war have changed the paradigm of how warfare is waged… Today, in a relatively cheap way, any country can have combat capabilities that completely outstrip its economic or demographic situation if there is a desire and political will for it.”

Israeli strikes kill 5 in Lebanon, Beirut to seek truce extension


ByAFP
April 22, 2026


Rescue teams work to remove the rubble of a building hit by the Israeli army in the southern Lebanese village of Hanaouay - Copyright AFP Kawnat HAJU

Israeli strikes killed five people, including a journalist, and wounded another in Lebanon on Wednesday, despite an ongoing ceasefire that Beirut will request an extension for in upcoming talks with Israel in Washington.

Ahead of the talks on Thursday, Israel called on the Lebanese government to “work together” with it against Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

The two governments, which do not have diplomatic relations with each other, are set to hold a second round of talks under US auspices on Thursday, in a bid to end more than six weeks of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that began on March 2.

Lebanon will request a one-month extension of the ceasefire during the meeting with Israel, a Lebanese official told AFP.

“Lebanon will request an extension of the truce for one month, an end of Israel’s bombing and destruction in the areas where it is present, and a commitment to the ceasefire,” the Lebanese official told AFP, on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the talks.

The 10-day ceasefire, which expires Sunday, was announced after an initial meeting last week.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, for his part, said that “contacts are underway to extend the ceasefire period”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel does not have any “serious disagreements” with Lebanon.

“Unfortunately, Lebanon is a failed state, a state that is de facto under Iranian occupation through Hezbollah,” he said.

Hezbollah, which is represented in the Lebanese cabinet and parliament, strongly opposes the direct talks with Israel pushed by Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

A Hezbollah lawmaker, however, told AFP on Monday that the group might accept indirect talks mediated by the United States.

“The obstacle to peace and normalisation between the (two) countries is one — Hezbollah,” said Saar.



– ‘Serious disagreements’ –



Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 2,454 people since the start of the war, according to Lebanese authorities.

On Wednesday, the state’s scientific research council estimated that more than 50,000 housing units had been damaged or destroyed by the war.

Israeli forces remain in dozens of southern villages, behind what the army has called a “Yellow Line”, described by the Israelis as a 10-kilometre (six-mile) deep “security zone” along the border in southern Lebanon.

Despite the truce, Israel is continuing its strikes in Lebanon.

Lebanese rescuers said an Israeli strike killed journalist Amal Khalil on Wednesday.

Before rescuers had found her body, Lebanon’s state media said Israeli strikes had killed four people in the south and east of the country.

Khalil’s employer, Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Akhbar, also announced her death and said fellow journalist Zeinab Faraj was wounded.

The health ministry said Faraj was transported to hospital.

Lebanon’s Information Minister Paul Morcos said on X that Khalil “was targeted by the Israeli army while carrying out her professional duty”.

The Israeli army said in a statement it had “identified two vehicles in southern Lebanon that had departed from a military structure used by Hezbollah”.

“After identifying the individuals as violating the ceasefire understandings and posing an imminent threat, the Israeli Air Force struck one of the vehicles. Subsequently, the structure from which the individuals had fled was also struck.”

Hezbollah issued four statements on Wednesday saying it had struck Israeli targets in south Lebanon, “in response to the Israeli enemy’s violation of the ceasefire”.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that a second French soldier died “of the consequences of his wounds” suffered in a weekend ambush against UN peacekeepers in Lebanon blamed on Hezbollah, which has denied responsibility.