At least 50 Malian soldiers have been killed in an ambush by Tuareg separatists and jihadist fighters targeting an army convoy leaving the strategic northern town of Anefis, officials said on Sunday.

The attack occurred on Saturday after weeks of intense fighting for control of the town.

Earlier this month, fighters from the Tuareg separatist Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLA) and the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) briefly seized Anefis and surrounded a military base used by Malian troops and Russian paramilitaries from the Africa Corps.

Both the FLA and JNIM claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

A local elected official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the assault as the deadliest suffered by the Malian army in years.

“The provisional toll of the attack is extremely heavy — more than 50 soldiers killed and at least 24 prisoners,” the official said.

A military source also confirmed the heavy casualties, alleging that some soldiers were executed after the ambush.

“Some of our men were simply executed,” the source said, adding that an investigation had been launched to determine what left the convoy vulnerable.

According to sources, the Russian paramilitary personnel accompanying the operation had already arrived in Gao, their destination, before the attack and did not sustain any casualties.

“No Russians were killed. The dead are from the army and the state-backed militias,” a community leader in the Gao region said.

The Malian army, in a statement on Saturday, confirmed that the convoy had “fallen into an ambush laid by terrorist armed groups” but did not disclose casualty figures.

Mali has been under military rule since successive coups in 2020 and 2021. Despite pledges by the junta to restore security, the country continues to battle persistent insurgencies by jihadist groups and separatist rebels, particularly in its northern regions.