Mali’s defense minister, General Sadio Camara, has been killed in an apparent suicide truck bombing on his residence near the capital Bamako

Death of Sadio Camara, part of a wave of coordinated attacks by jihadist militants and separatists carried out across the country on Saturday

Early Saturday, militants carried out a suicide car bomb assault on Camara’s residence in Kati, a heavily fortified military town about 9 miles northwest of Bamako

The minister was killed along with his second wife and two of his grandchildren

Camara, a key figure in Mali’s military government, was considered highly influential and his death is seen as a major blow to the country’s armed forces

General Sadio Camara, seen [photo], Mali’s Defense Minister was killed Saturday in an apparent suicide truck bombing on his residence near the capital Bamako

Mali’s defense minister has been killed in an apparent suicide truck bombing on his residence at a military garrison near the capital Bamako.
Multiple news outlets reported the death of Sadio Camara, part of a wave of coordinated attacks by jihadist militants and separatists carried out across the country.
The attackers carried out a suicide car bomb assault on Camara’s residence in Kati, a heavily fortified military town about 9 miles northwest of the capital, Bamako, where President Assimi Goita also lives.
Camara’s residence in the garrison town of Kati came under assault on Saturday during simultaneous attacks by an al-Qaeda affiliate and Tuareg rebels, targeting several cities on Saturday as fighting was reported near the international airport in Bamako, in the Kati, a major military base outside the capital, in Gao and Kidal in the north, and the central cities of Sevare and Mopti.
The attack led to the collapse of Camara’s residence and the destruction of a nearby mosque, where a number of worshipers were also killed.
Camara exchanged fire with the attackers and “succeeded in neutralizing some of them.” However, he was wounded and later died from his injuries in hospital, the statement said l.
The defense minister’s second wife and two of his grandchildren were also killed in the attack on his home.
State TV confirming the minister’s death several hours later, said he died of wounds received while engaging with the attackers. Government spokesman Issa Ousmane Coulibaly read out a statement on Sunday evening saying Camara was killed when “a vehicle laden with explosives and driven by a suicide attacker targeted the minister’s residence”.
Camara, a key figure in Mali’s military government, was considered highly influential, and his death is seen as a major blow to the country’s armed forces.

Sadio Camara, seen [left], with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov [center], and his Malian counterpart, Abdoulaye Diop, a key figure in Mali’s military government, was considered highly influential. His death is seen as a major blow to the country’s armed forces

The wave of suicide bombings followed by gunfire was still ongoing by Sunday although state TV claims Mali’s military has neutralized the militants and reclaimed control.
In the wake of the assault, the head of the military junta, Gen Assimi Goita, has been moved to a safe location after his home was targeted.
Further north Russian mercenaries hired by Mali’s military agreed to withdraw from Kidal after two days of clashes, the separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) group said.
For years, Mali has been plagued by insurgencies by groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, and the FLA.
Reports suggest the assault by the separatists, whose goal is a breakaway ethnic Tuareg state in the north of Mali, was primarily focused on northern cities, while the jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) had staged simultaneous attacks on multiple locations across the country, in what was described as the “largest co-ordinated jihadist attack on Mali for years”.
FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane said Kidal had “not fallen completely” during those attacks, at the time. The militants he said, remained in the city because “elements of the Malian army and Russian mercenaries” were still present.

Fighting between the FLA, Malian army and Russian mercenaries continued on Sunday in Kati and Kidal

On Sunday, clashes between the FLA and the Malian government resumed in Kidal.
Shortly after these reports, Ramadane said: “An agreement was reached between the Azawad forces and the Russian elements of the Africa Corps with a view to ensuring their secure withdrawal from the fighting.”
In later updates, he said they were “permanently withdrawing from Kidal” and “Kidal is now free”.
There has been no confirmation of these claims from Mali’s military.
Russian personnel were responding along with units of Mali’s presidential guard and armed forces, preventing the presidential palace from being seized.
Russian state-run broadcaster Vesti reported on Sunday that Russia’s Africa Corps was repelling a large-scale militant attack on Mali’s government.
The FLA also claims to have taken control of the city, which served as an unofficial headquarters of the separatist movement for more than a decade before it was captured by Mali’s army with the help of Russian mercenaries in late 2023.
An FLA field commander involved in the assault on Kidal revealed that the group had been preparing for the offensive “for months”, adding: “Our main goal now is to control Gao and then Timbuktu will be easy to fall.”
State broadcaster ORTM reporting injuries to 16 people, including civilians and soldiers, were injured in the attacks, said several “terrorists” had been killed as Mali’s military restored order .
However, despite reports that the situation is “completely under control” in all affected areas, the military confirmed fighting was continuing in Kidal, as well as Kati and other parts of the country.

Armed men are a common sight as gunshots ring out on streets of Kati and Kidal

The FLA has for years been fighting for the creation of its own Tuareg homeland in northern Mali, a large swathe of which it has effective control over.
Mali is currently ruled by a military government led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who first seized power in a coup in 2020, promising to restore security and push back armed groups.
The current leadership had popular support when it took power, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by the Tuareg rebellion in the north, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
With the departure of UN peacekeepers and French forces after the Mali’s military staged their coup, the military government hired Russian mercenaries to help tackle the insecurity.