Mali's defence minister killed as armed groups launch countrywide offensive

Mali’s defence minister was killed in an attack on his home on Sunday, as separatists and an al-Qaeda-affiliated armed group launched a major coordinated offensive across the country. 

Sadio Camara was killed, state television confirmed, after a suicide attacker drove a car laden with explosives into his home in the town of Kati. 

A firefight had broken out after the attack, and Camara sustained wounds from which he later died in hospital. A government statement said he had fought his attackers, “some of whom he succeeded in neutralising”, before being killed. 

Camara’s second wife and two of his grandchildren were also killed. Two days of mourning will be observed in the country. 

The killing formed part of a string of simultaneous attacks carried out by the Tuareg-led separatist Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, and Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an armed group affiliated with al-Qaeda. 

The coalition fought in several parts of the country, including Kati, a stronghold of the government near the capital Bamoko, Sevare in central Mali, as well as the northern towns of Gao and Kidal.

Bamako airport was briefly shut after heavy fighting in the district of Senou. 

The fate of Kidal - the strategic northern city that was a former stronghold of the FLA - was unclear as of Sunday evening. 

The separatists said Kidal had fallen after it had struck a deal to allow Russian mercenaries, who support the government, to leave a besieged camp near the city. 

But Oumar Diarra, the army’s chief of staff, said the military had tactically repositioned its forces in Kidal and that fighting was ongoing. 

Malian forces recaptured Kidal after a decade of Tuareg separatist control in November 2023, with the help of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group.  

More recently, the government has been supported by Africa Corps, a Russian paramilitary group directly controlled and managed by the defence ministry in Moscow. Africa Corps took over from Wagner in mid-2025. 

Mali was seized in a military coup by Assimi Goita in 2020. He promised to restore security in the region, including against Tuareg rebellion in the north and other armed groups. 

However, unrest has continued and large parts of the country remain outside of the control of Goita’s forces. 

The attacks over the weekend were described as one of the largest coordinated attacks in Mali in several years. 

Africa Corps repelled some of the attacks and, alongside Malian forces, prevented the presidential palace from being seized in Bamako, according to Russian state broadcaster Vesti. 

Vesti reported that some Africa Corps personnel were wounded in the fighting, without elaborating. 

JNIM has been stepping up actions across the country in recent years. 

In September 2024, it attacked a paramilitary police training school near the capital’s airport, killing around 70 people. 

More recently, it has launched a fuel blockade leaving many residents and businesses in Bamako without electricity or supplies. 

The Alliance of Sahel States - Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the three West African states taken over by military juntas in recent years - condemned the offensive as “a monstrous plot backed by the enemies of the liberation of the Sahel". 

All three states have severed ties with former colonial ruler France and other western states, and grown closer to Moscow.