Mali’s defense minister, Gen. Sadio Camara, was among those killed in coordinated attacks by Al Qaeda-linked militants in the West African nation over the weekend, a government spokesman said on state television Sunday, a blow that shows the growing strength of Islamist terrorists in the region.
The spokesman, Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, said a vehicle “laden with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber” had targeted General Camara’s residence in the country’s military headquarters just outside the capital, Bamako. General Camara had engaged in a gunfight with the attackers before being fatally injured, he said.
The militants also targeted General Assimi Goita, who took control of the country in a coup in 2020. General Goita has not been seen publicly since the attacks.
Announcing a two-day period of national mourning following General Camara’s death, a spokesman offered condolences on behalf of General Goita, suggesting he is still alive.
Several others died in General Camara’s house during the weekend attack, as well as people praying in a neighboring mosque that was destroyed, said General Coulibaly. He acknowledged that the attacks had left civilians and soldiers dead, but did not say how many were killed.
In a separate interview with the state broadcaster on Sunday, Maj. Gen. Oumar Diarra, the military’s chief of general staff, said more than 200 terrorists had been “neutralized” during counteroffensives against the insurgents, who he said disguised themselves by wearing military uniforms.
“Search and sweep operations are continuing in practically all areas and we are searching for them, pursuing them and destroying them wherever they are found,” he said.
General Camara was a central figure in the 2020 coup that toppled then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita amid discontent over the government’s failure to address corruption and a violent Islamist insurgency.
He was Mali’s main point of contact with Russia, which provided security services for the junta, first through the Wagner paramilitary group and then Africa Corps.
Mali has seen a major escalation of violence in recent years involving jihadist groups, the most powerful of which is JNIM, the group that claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks, alongside an ethnic minority separatist group.
JNIM, or Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, meaning “Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims,” was established in 2017. Affiliated with al-Qaeda, it has sought to deepen its influence in West African countries like Mali and Burkina Faso, and instituted Islamic law in areas it controls.
Despite its beginnings as a rural insurgency, JNIM has in recent years increasingly directed its attacks on urban centers, a sign of its growing political ambitions. The latest, highly coordinated attacks took place simultaneously in multiple cities. The group used car bombs and armed drones.
In a statement issued during the offensive, JNIM said it had captured Kidal and the central city of Mopti, as well as military bases in nearby Sevaré and in Gao. It named the Azawad Liberation Front, an armed separatist movement of the Tuareg ethnic minority, as its partner in the attacks.
In 2020, Mali’s government was toppled by coup plotters — the first in a spate of coups to hit West Africa in recent years. Military juntas in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso came to power by promising to restore security against the jihadists.
But the opposite has happened: violence has intensified, while the juntas have cracked down on freedoms and strengthened their holds on power.
Citing the need for sovereignty, the three Sahelian countries left the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS, and pushed out European forces that had been fighting militants in the region. In a statement released over the weekend, Captain Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso called JNIM’s attacks a “monstrous plot supported by the enemies of the struggle for the Sahel’s liberation.”
Russian mercenaries who had been holed up in a camp in the northern city of Kidal announced their departure on Sunday, together with Malian troops. Several Russian bloggers connected to the mercenaries published videos over the weekend showing trucks carrying Africa Corps equipment, including heavy artillery, leaving Kidal, with fighters cheering nearby.
French news outlets reported that Africa Corps forces had reached a deal with the Azawad Liberation Front that allowed them to leave Kidal. In its statement, JNIM offered not to target the Russians and to “build a balanced and effective future relationship” with them if they withdrew from Mali.
Wagner was once a formidable force in the Sahel. Its forces promised to quell Islamist rebellions in return for Russian access Africa’s vast natural resources. It significantly scaled down its operation after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and was formally disbanded in 2023.
The core of Wagner’s Africa personnel has remained on the continent under the banner of Africa Corps. But there have been major defeats, including in 2024 in northern Mali, when at least 46 Russian mercenaries and 24 Malian soldiers were killed.
Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting.
Source:
www.nytimes.com
