France, July 4 -- Jihadists with the al-Qaeda linked JNIM and members of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) launched coordinated assaults at around 5:00 am on Saturday.

Attacks were reported in Gao, Anefis, Aguelhok and Sevare, as well as a prison in Kenieroba.

The latest fighting came more than two months after the same rebel groups staged attacks against the military-led government, hitting the airport in the capital ​Bamako, killing the defence minister ‌and seizing a string of army bases in the north.

Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesperson for the FLA - an ethnic Tuareg separatist movement - told France's AFP that "several positions have fallen, but fighting [was] still underway inside the city" of Anefis in the nor...