Mali’s ruling military authorities are facing one of their gravest security crises in years after coordinated attacks by Tuareg rebels and jihadist fighters struck several parts of the country, killing Defence Minister Sadio Camara and raising fresh doubts about the junta’s grip on power. Camara, a central figure in the military government and one of its most influential officials, was killed in an explosion at his residence, according to Reuters, while relatives said his wife and two grandchildren also died in the blast.
The violence appears to mark a major escalation in Mali’s long-running conflict. Reuters and the Associated Press reported that the attacks were carried out by fighters from the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, working alongside Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, the al Qaeda-linked group known as JNIM. The coordinated offensive targeted Kati near Bamako, as well as northern and central locations including Kidal, Gao, Mopti and Sévaré, in what analysts described as one of the largest and most ambitious assaults in recent years.
Particular attention has focused on Kidal, the strategic northern city that Malian forces, backed by Russian Wagner fighters, retook in 2023 after years of rebel control. The FLA now says it has regained the city and that an arrangement was reached to allow Malian and Russian-backed forces to withdraw from a besieged camp outside Kidal. Mali’s armed forces, however, insist counter-operations are still under way, leaving the city’s status unclear.
The attacks are a severe embarrassment for the junta, which had justified its break with Western partners and its turn toward Russia on the grounds that it would restore security. Instead, residents in several towns have described scenes of fear, trauma and confusion after explosions and sustained gunfire rocked urban centres. Reuters reported that even as the military said the situation was under control, fighting continued in Kati on Sunday and the United Nations called for an international response to the deteriorating security environment.
For Mali, the latest offensive is more than another security setback. It signals an increasingly dangerous convergence between separatist and jihadist forces and raises the prospect of a broader destabilisation of the country at a time when the junta is already under pressure to prove that its security-first strategy can succeed.
