Dakar, Senegal — Dakar, Senegal (AP) – gardener The defense minister was killed in a wide-ranging offensive by jihadists and rebels who seized several towns and military bases, officials said Sunday, the latest violence in the junta-run country that has long battled militants linked to al-Qaida. Islamic State group As well as the separatist insurgency in the north.
The Malian government confirmed the death of defense chief General Sadio Camara in a post on the Defense Ministry’s Facebook page and expressed its condolences to his family. State television also broadcast the announcement of his death by spokesman General Issa Ousmane Coulibaly.
Mali was attacked on Saturday One of the largest coordinated attacks The attack on its forces in the capital Bamako and several other cities and towns also challenged Mali’s security partner Russia, which has troops on the ground in the West African country.
The government said Sunday that the attacks appeared to be over, but many questions remained, including who was in control of the key northern city claimed by the separatists.
The government has not released a death toll since Saturday and had previously said only that at least 16 people were injured in the terrorist attacks.
have been separatists been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali, while al-Qaeda and IS-aligned militants have been fighting the government for more than a decade.
Camara’s residence was targeted by a suicide car bomber and other attackers on Saturday, according to a government statement.
“He engaged in a shootout with the attackers, some of whom he managed to kill,” it said. “During the intense clash, he was injured and was then taken to hospital, where unfortunately he succumbed to his injuries.”
A spokesman for the separatist Tuareg-led Free Liberation Front, or FLA, said Russian Africa Corps troops and the Malian army withdrew from the town of Kidal following the attack on Saturday, after reaching an agreement for their peaceful exit.
“Kidal has been declared independent,” said FLA spokesman Mohammed Al Mouloud Ramadan.
The Malian army did not respond to requests for comment about whether it had retreated from Kidal. An earlier statement said they were “tracking terrorist armed groups in Kidal.”
have been separatists been fighting for years To create an independent state in northern Mali.
Kidal long served as a stronghold of the rebellion before being captured by Malian government forces and Russian mercenaries in 2023. Its capture marked an important symbolic victory for the junta and its Russian allies.
Saturday’s wave of attacks was the first time the separatists joined forces with the al-Qaeda-linked group JNIM, which it said was also part of the attack on Kidal and had also targeted a town outside the capital of Bamako and three other towns on Saturday.
An FLA spokesperson confirmed the coordinated effort.
“This operation is being conducted in partnership with JNIM, which is also committed to protecting the people in Bamako against the military regime,” Ramadan said.
The separatists called on Russia to “reconsider its support for the military junta” in Mali, saying its “actions have contributed to the suffering of the civilian population.”
Wasim Nasr, an expert in the region and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center security think tank, said it was the first time to “coordinate, carry out attacks across the country at the same time”, a united push by the two groups and a call for Russian forces to leave.
It extended beyond the military to the political level, he said, as both groups “acknowledged that they worked together.”
Following the attacks, a three-day nightly curfew from 9 pm to 6 am was also announced in the Bamako district.
Mali government spokesman Coulibaly said the 16 wounded included civilians and military personnel and that several militants had been killed. He did not reveal the number of deaths.
The Economic Community of West African States condemned Saturday’s attacks in Mali and called on “all States, security forces, regional mechanisms and populations of West Africa to unite and engage in a coordinated effort to address this crisis.”
Following the military coup, juntas in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso turned from Western allies to Russia for help fighting Islamic militants.
But the security situation in the area is bad has become worse in recent daysWith a record number of attacks by militants. Government forces have also been accused of killing civilians suspected of collaborating with terrorists.
In 2024, the al-Qaeda-linked group claimed attacks on Bamako’s airport and a military training camp in the country’s capital, killing countless people.
Ulf Lessing of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation said that separatists and JNIM are unlikely to take control of Bamako in the near future due to opposition from the local population.
Nevertheless, the attacks weakened the Malian junta’s Russian partners.
Lessing said, “The attacks are a major blow to Russia because the mercenaries had no intelligence about the attacks and were unable to defend major cities.”
