By By: Staff Writer
BAMAKO, — Mali’s Defence Minister Sadio Camara was killed Saturday during a surge of coordinated attacks by jihadist militants and separatist fighters, state media confirmed hours after the incident.
According to state TV, Camara died of wounds sustained while engaging attackers who targeted his residence in Kati, a major military base outside the capital. Officials said a vehicle laden with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber struck the minister’s home. Government spokesman Issa Ousmane Coulibaly said Camara exchanged fire with the assailants and “succeeded in neutralising some of them” before being wounded. He later died in hospital.
The blast collapsed Camara’s residence and destroyed a nearby mosque, where several worshippers were also killed, the government statement said. At least three of Camara’s family members died in the attack, according to news agencies citing his family and French media.
The assault was part of broader strikes reported Saturday in Gao and Kidal in the north, and Sevare and Mopti in central Mali. Junta leader Gen Assimi Goita was moved to a secure location after his home was also targeted, multiple outlets reported.
State broadcaster ORTM said 16 people, including civilians and soldiers, were injured in the attacks, which caused “limited damage.” It added that several “terrorists” had been killed and that the situation was “completely under control” in all affected areas. The military later confirmed fighting was continuing in Kidal, Kati and other locations.
Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Mali, told the BBC the offensive appeared to be the “largest co-ordinated jihadist attack on Mali for years.”
Reports indicate the attacks involved Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate, which staged simultaneous strikes nationwide. Separatist group Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), which seeks an ethnic Tuareg state in the north, focused its assault on northern cities.
In Kidal, the FLA said Russian mercenaries contracted by Mali’s military agreed to withdraw after two days of clashes. FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane said an agreement was reached with “Russian elements of the Africa Corps” to ensure their “secure withdrawal from the fighting.” He later claimed the mercenaries were “permanently withdrawing from Kidal” and that “Kidal is now free.” Mali’s military has not confirmed the claims. The FLA also asserted it had taken control of Kidal, which served as the separatists’ unofficial headquarters for over a decade before being recaptured by the army with Russian support in late 2023.
An FLA field commander told the BBC the group had prepared the offensive “for months,” adding: “Our main goal now is to control Gao and then Timbuktu will be easy to fall.”
Mali’s military said Sunday the violence would “not go unanswered.” A nationwide alert has been issued, with patrols stepped up and checkpoints reinforced. Curfews were imposed in some areas, including Bamako, where a 21:00 to 06:00 curfew is expected to run through Monday.
The UN, West African bloc Ecowas, and African Union Commission all condemned the attacks. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed “solidarity with the Malian people.” Burkina Faso’s military ruler Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, president of the Alliance of Sahel States, called the attacks “barbaric and inhumane,” saying they were “backed by the enemies of the Sahel liberation struggle.”
Mali has faced years of insurgencies by al-Qaeda and Islamic State-linked groups, alongside the FLA’s push for a Tuareg homeland in the north. The junta led by Gen Goita seized power in 2020, pledging to restore security. UN peacekeepers and French forces left after the coup, and the government turned to Russian mercenaries. Despite those moves, large areas of the north and east remain outside government control.
Credit: BBC
