Mali junta in crisis after minister killed, key city ‘captured’

BAMAKO (AFP) — Mali’s military rulers faced a security crisis Sunday after coordinated nationwide attacks by jihadist fighters and separatist rebels this weekend killed the defense minister and reportedly left a key northern town in rebel hands.

There was no word from the junta leader General Assimi Goita, who has not been seen since the attacks began at dawn on Saturday.

The offensive, synchronized by Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition and the jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, targeted several areas in the vast arid country.

Analysts said the coordinated attacks were the most serious challenge to the country’s rulers since the March 2012 offensive that was repelled by the intervention of French forces, who have since left.

Government troops were still fighting in some parts of the country, but the loss of Defense Minister Sadio Camara Saturday represented a serious blow to the administration.

Camara, his second wife and two of his grandchildren died after a car bomb attack on his home in the junta stronghold of Kati, outside Bamako, his family and an official said.

A government statement issued on Sunday said Camara had died while fighting his attackers “some of whom he succeeded in neutralizing.” The general died of his wounds in hospital and will receive a national funeral, the statement added.

There was still fighting Sunday in several areas, including Kati, the northern towns of Kidal and Gao, as well as Severe, in central Mali.

Rebels claim Kidal

Tuareg rebels told Agence France-Presse they had reached an agreement allowing Russian Africa Corps forces backing Mali’s army to withdraw from the northern city of Kidal, which they claimed was “totally” under their control.

“We saw a military convoy leave, but don’t know the details of what’s happening. Fighters from armed movements have now taken over the streets,” said one resident.

Mali’s army had recaptured Kidal, a Tuareg stronghold, in November 2023 with the help of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group, ending more than a decade of control by rebels.

The FLA, made up of mainly Tuareg groups who want independence for Azawad, a territory in northern Mali, also said it had taken positions in the northern Gao region.

Mali has been ravaged for more than a decade by conflict and jihadist violence but Saturday’s attacks were the worst since 2020, when the junta seized power.

The situation in Sevare, central Mali, where gunfire could still be heard, remained “confused,” said one local official.

While there has been no word from or sighting of junta chief Goita, a Malian security source told AFP he was in a safe place.