Suicide Bombing Kills Mali's Defense Minister as Insurgents Launch Coordinated Attacks Across Country

A suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into the residence of Mali's defense minister, Gen. Sadio Camara, at the military headquarters in Kati, just outside the capital Bamako, killing him during a wave of coordinated attacks by insurgents on Saturday, April 25.

Government spokesman Issa Ousmane Coulibaly announced on state television that Camara engaged in a gunfight with the attackers, neutralizing some before succumbing to his wounds in a hospital.

The attack also killed at least three of Camara's family members, according to his family and French media reports, and caused the collapse of his residence and a nearby mosque, where worshippers died. Mali declared a two-day period of national mourning in response to Camara's death. A curfew from 21:00 to 06:00 local time was imposed in Bamako, set to end on Monday.

The assaults, carried out simultaneously in multiple cities, involved car bombs and armed drones. Fighting occurred in Kati, Gao and Kidal in the north, and the central cities of Sévaré and Mopti. Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, an Al Qaeda-affiliated group established in 2017, claimed responsibility for the attacks in partnership with the Azawad Liberation Front, an armed separatist movement of the Tuareg ethnic minority.

JNIM stated it had captured the northern city of Kidal and the central city of Mopti, as well as military bases in nearby Sévaré and Gao. The Azawad Liberation Front said Russian mercenaries hired by Mali's military agreed to withdraw from Kidal after two days of clashes.

Kidal served as an unofficial headquarters of the separatist movement for more than a decade before Mali's army, with Russian help, captured it in late 2023.

Maj. Gen. Oumar Diarra, the Malian military’s chief of general staff, stated in an interview with state broadcaster ORTM that more than 200 terrorists had been neutralized during counteroffensives. He added that the insurgents were trying to disguise 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,” Diarra said. State broadcaster ORTM reported that 16 people, including civilians and soldiers, were injured in the attacks. Camara was a key figure in the 2020 coup that toppled the government of then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Under the current military government led by Assimi Goïta, Camara served as Mali’s main point of contact with Russia, which provided security services through the Wagner paramilitary group and later Africa Corps. JNIM, meaning “Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims,” has sought to deepen its influence in West African countries like Mali and Burkina Faso, instituting Islamic law in areas under its control.

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the acts of violence and expressed solidarity with the Malian people.

Captain Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso's military ruler, described the attacks as barbaric and inhumane and said they were backed by the enemies of the Sahel liberation struggle.