BAMAKO – Mali Defence Minister Sadio Camara was killed in an attack by al Qaeda-linked group JNIM on his residence at the Kati military base outside Bamako on Saturday, France’s RFI radio reported on Sunday.
Sustained gunfire rang out in a garrison town near Mali’s capital on Sunday, a Reuters witness said, a day after an al Qaeda affiliate and Tuareg rebels carried out one of the largest coordinated attacks in the country in recent years.
The gunfire in the town of Kati suggested that fighting had entered a second day, despite the army saying it had reasserted control.
The United Nations called for an international response to violence and terrorism in the West Africa Sahel region following Saturday’s large-scale assaults.
“The Secretary‑General is deeply concerned by reports of attacks in several locations across Mali. He strongly condemns these acts of violence,” a U.N. spokesperson posted on X.
An al Qaeda affiliate and Tuareg rebels claimed responsibility for the around the capital, Bamako, in gold-producing areas and elsewhere across Mali, in one of the boldest operations insurgents have mounted in their campaign against the military-led government.
The final toll of deaths and injuries remained unclear on Sunday, as did the fate of the contested city of Kidal, which the insurgents claimed to have recaptured from government forces in the assault.
Government spokesperson Issa Ousmane Coulibaly said 16 people had been injured and the situation was completely under control in all areas under attack. An overnight curfew lasting three days has also been implemented.
But the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a Tuareg-dominated rebel group involved in various uprisings against the government for decades, said on Sunday it had seized back control of Kidal.
An FLA spokesperson said in a post on X that a deal had been struck to let Russian mercenaries leave a besieged camp outside the city where Malian armed forces were still entrenched.
Claiming responsibility on Saturday, the FLA said it had carried out the wide-scale operation alongside al Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).
JNIM also issued a statement on Saturday, published by SITE Intelligence Group, claiming responsibility for attacks in Kati, on Bamako’s airport and in areas further north, including Mopti, Sevare and Gao.
