Mali’s defence minister was killed after an attack on his residence, the government said on Sunday, a high-profile casualty in a series of coordinated assaults by insurgents including the Sahel affiliate of al-Qaida. A vehicle packed with explosives driven by a suicide attacker rammed Sadio Camara’s home in Kati, about 15km north of Bamako, the government spokesperson Issa Ousmane Coulibaly said in a statement broadcast on state television. A firefight followed; Camara was wounded and later died in hospital. The government announced two days of mourning.
Earlier media reports had said Camara was killed during the operation in Kati, where the army’s main base is located. The regional al-Qaida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) said it cooperated with a Tuareg-dominated rebel group, the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), to carry out more than half a dozen near-simultaneous attacks across the country, according to claims by both groups. Strikes hit Kati, areas near Bamako airport and towns farther north including Mopti, Sevare and Gao. The government has not released an overall death toll; Coulibaly offered condolences for “all civilian and military victims who died” without giving numbers.
Analysts and diplomats described Saturday’s operation as among the largest coordinated insurgent attacks in Mali in recent years. The UN urged an international response to renewed violence and terrorism in the Sahel. “The secretary general is deeply concerned by reports of attacks in several locations across Mali,” a UN spokesperson posted on X, condemning the violence.
The fate of the strategic northern city of Kidal was unclear on Sunday. The FLA said Kidal had fallen and claimed a deal was struck to allow Russian mercenaries to leave a besieged camp outside the city, where Malian forces remained entrenched. Mali’s army chief of staff, General Oumar Diarra, told state television the military had tactically repositioned troops in Kidal and was continuing operations there.
Observers said the attacks were a setback for Russia, which has backed Mali’s military-led government after the withdrawal of French, US and other Western forces. Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said Russia had failed to prevent the fall of the symbolic Tuareg stronghold and would now need to withdraw from the northern city. Russian state broadcaster Vesti reported Russia’s Africa Corps was fighting a large-scale militant attack and, together with Mali’s presidential guard and armed forces, helped prevent the presidential palace from being seized; Vesti said some Africa Corps personnel were wounded.
The strikes underline Mali’s continuing security challenges despite promises of greater stability. In September 2024 JNIM attacked a paramilitary police training school near Bamako’s airport, killing about 70 people, and more recently carried out a fuel blockade that disrupted supplies in the capital. Mali has been seeking closer ties with Washington, which aims to rebuild security cooperation and explore mining opportunities. Mali’s foreign minister told Reuters last week that neighbouring states and foreign powers were backing terrorist groups, but declined to name countries.
