DAKAR, Oct 13, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Several dozen Malian soldiers and Russian paramilitary fighters have arrived in the northern town of Tessalit, where the UN mission will soon leave its camp, security and local officials told AFP on Friday.

"As part of the takeover of the UN mission's camps in Mali, our troops arrived in Tessalit on Thursday," a military official in the north of the Sahel country told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Two local officials said dozens of soldiers and fighters from the Russian paramilitary company Wagner had been flown in by a Malian army plane. 
They joined the existing UN camp where the soldiers had previously maintained a small unit, said one of the local officials.

The moves are part of an ongoing security reconfiguration that began after the junta, which seized power in 2020, ordered the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA to leave by the end of 2023. 

Armed actors are fighting for control of the territory, and the handover of the UN camps is emerging as a major issue.

Predominantly Tuareg separatist groups, which made peace with the government in 2015, have recently taken up arms again, while the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) has also stepped up attacks on army positions.

MINUSMA has since August handed over several of its camps to Malian authorities. 

In the coming weeks, it will hand over others, including those in the north such as at Tessalit, Aguelhok and Kidal. 

The army earlier this month dispatched a large convoy in the direction of Kidal. 

The convoy is currently about 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Kidal and has come under attack along the way.