Al Qaeda affiliate Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, launched coordinated attacks on July 4 with the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, on Mali's northern towns of Gao, Aguelhok and Anefis, thereafter seizing most of Anefis, where Malian security forces and Russia's paramilitary Africa Corps remain retrenched in the town's military camp as of July 6 following failed resupply attempts, Radio France Internationale reported. Also on July 4, JNIM launched an attack on a prison in the southern locality of Kenieroba, located 74 kilometers (46 miles) south of Bamako, as well as on Malian security forces and pro-government Dozo militias in the central regions of Mopti and Sevare.

The July 4 attack comes as the rainy season is set to intensify in Mali, which will hinder militants' mobility and thus constrain their ability to conduct coordinated attacks in the southern and central regions. It also comes close to two months after JNIM and the FLA launched nationwide attacks on Malian security forces, during which the insurgents captured the symbolically important city of Kidal.