Mali Launches Airstrikes on Kidal as Islamist-Tuareg Coalition Seizes Northern Town

Mali’s armed forces, supported by Russian mercenaries, launched airstrikes targeting a rebel alliance of Islamist extremists and Tuareg separatists after the group seized the key northern town of Kidal in late April 2026. Warplanes targeted Kidal earlier this week.

Witnesses said the government forces’ airstrikes destroyed only a house near an old market and left a crater inside the extensive courtyard of the governor’s office.

Russian-piloted and supplied military helicopters protected convoys or airlifted supplies to remote outposts where Mali’s army has mounted as yet ineffective efforts to reimpose government authority. The rebel offensive used ambushes, car bombs, drones and raids against strategic towns, government forces and their Russian auxiliaries.

Mali’s defence minister Sadio Camara died in a suicide attack on his residence in the garrison town of Kati, 9 miles (15km) north-west of Bamako.

The head of military intelligence was killed during the rebel offensive and rebels targeted Mali’s international airport. Rebels seized control of Kidal after soldiers fled and a force of Russian mercenaries surrendered. The defeat in Kidal reversed a key symbolic victory won by the junta in Mali three years ago.

Between 2,000 and 2,500 Russian mercenaries were first dispatched to Mali by the Kremlin in 2021. The rebel coalition unites the al-Qaida-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) with the Tuareg-dominated rebel group Azawad Liberation Front (FLA).

The rebel coalition has continued striking dozens of military posts in the centre and north of Mali and is enforcing a strict blockade on Bamako.