*Defence Minister, Three Family Members, Others Killed In Car Bomb On Residence
THE United Nations has called for an international response to violence and terrorism in West Africa’s Sahel region, following the killing of Mali’s Defence Minister, Sadio Camara, in an apparent suicide truck bombing on his residence near the capital, Bamako.
Camara was killed during a wave of coordinated attacks by jihadist militants and separatists across the country.
A statement by the UN spokesperson posted on X said: “The Secretary General is deeply concerned by reports of attacks in several locations across Mali. He strongly condemns these acts of violence.”
Similarly, regional bloc, the Economic Council of West African States (ECOWAS), condemned the attacks.
Recall that Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso left the bloc after military coups brought their armies to power and formed a separate Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
The African Union (AU) Commission Chair, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, said he was following the situation with “deep concern.”
Burkina Faso’s military ruler, Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, who seized power in a coup three years ago, also condemned the attacks in Mali.
Traoré, who is president of the AES, in a statement released on Sunday night, described the attacks as “barbaric and inhumane, backed by the enemies of the Sahel liberation struggle,” insisting the attacks could not “shake the will of the valiant people of Sahel to live in freedom, peace and dignity.”
According to the BBC, state television said the minister died of wounds received while engaging with the attackers.
The head of the military junta, Gen. Assimi Goita, was reportedly 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.
Quoting Camara’s family and French media, news agencies said the attack, launched by militants affiliated with al-Qaeda in Kati on Saturday, also killed at least three of Camara’s family members.
Government spokesman, Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, read out a statement on Sunday evening, April 26, saying Camara was killed when “a vehicle laden with explosives and driven by a suicide attacker targeted the minister’s residence.”
The minister was reported to have exchanged fire with the attackers and “succeeded in neutralising some of them,” but was wounded and later died from his injuries in hospital.
The government has not provided a death toll, bit Coulibaly expressed condolences for “all civilian and military victims who died,” without providing a number.
The attack led to the collapse of Camara’s residence and the destruction of a nearby mosque, where a number of worshippers were also killed.
Fighting on Saturday, April 25, had been reported in the town, a major military base outside the capital, in Gao and Kidal in the north, and the central cities of Sevare and Mopti.
Reports suggested the assault by the separatists, who seek a breakaway ethnic Tuareg State in the north, 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.
Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Mali, told the BBC the incident appeared to be the “largest coordinated jihadist attack on Mali for years.”
FLA spokesman, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, said Kidal had “not fallen completely” during those attacks, at the time, telling the BBC they remained in the city because “elements of the Malian army and Russian mercenaries” were still present.
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.
But Mali’s Army chief of staff, Gen. Oumar Diarra, told the state broadcaster on Sunday that the military had tactically repositioned forces in Kidal and operations in the area were ongoing.
Fighting between the FLA, Malian army and Russian mercenaries continued on Sunday, with the group claiming to have taken control of the city, which served as an unofficial headquarters of the separatist movement for over 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 told the BBC on Saturday 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, reported that 16 people, including civilians and soldiers, were injured in the attacks, which it said caused “limited damage,” noting that several “terrorists” had been killed and the situation was “completely under control” in all affected areas.
However, its military confirmed fighting was continuing in Kidal on Sunday, as well as Kati and other parts of the country.
In a statement on Sunday, the military ovwed the violence would “not go unanswered,” saying a nationwide alert had been issued, with large-scale patrols stepped up and checkpoints reinforced to tighten security.
The FLA has for years been fighting for the creation of its own Tuareg homeland in northern Mali, a large swathe of it has effective control over.
Goïta, who first seized power in a coup in 2020, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by the Tuareg rebellion in the north, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
UN peacekeepers and French forces deployed to deal with the escalating insurgency left after the junta took over, and the military government hired Russian mercenaries to help tackle the insecurity.
However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.
