Wave of Coordinated Attacks Rock Mali
Gunfire and blasts reverberated around Kati — home to Mali's principal military base and the residence of President Assimi Goita. AP reported that the area surrounding the capital's international airport was also targeted, while witnesses cited by Reuters described military helicopters circling overhead and security forces barricading key roads. The violence was not confined to Bamako; fierce clashes were also reported in the central town of Sevare and the northern cities of Gao and Kidal.
The Malian Army acknowledged it was engaged against what it initially described as "unidentified terrorist groups," later asserting that the situation had been brought under control while confirming that large-scale counter-terrorism operations remained ongoing. Army spokesman Col. Souleymane Dembele announced that at least 80 militants had been neutralized across the country.
Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the Al-Qaeda-affiliated network operating across the Sahel, claimed responsibility for the offensive, identifying its targets as the residence of Defense Minister Sadio Camara, military installations in Kati, and Modibo Keita International Airport in Bamako.
The assault was conducted in coordination with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a Tuareg-led rebel coalition that separately claimed to have seized Kidal — a strategically vital northern city that Malian government forces, backed by Russian private military contractor Wagner Group, had wrested back from rebel hands in November 2023 following more than a decade of insurgent control.
The timing of the attacks was particularly striking, coming just days after the African Corps — a Russian Defense Ministry unit that succeeded Wagner in the region last year — successfully secured the release of two geological survey workers who had spent nearly two years in JNIM captivity across the Sahel.
The broader crisis gripping the Sahel traces its origins to 2012, when a jihadist insurgency spearheaded by JNIM and Islamic State first ignited in Mali before bleeding into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger — a spiral that a decade of French military engagement ultimately failed to contain.
Relations between Bamako and Paris have since collapsed entirely. Mali has accused France of "providing direct support to terrorists" — allegations Paris has flatly rejected. Mali expelled French forces in 2022, with Burkina Faso and Niger following suit shortly after. The three nations have since formalized their rupture with the West African ECOWAS bloc, establishing the Alliance of Sahel States — a mutual defense compact backed by Russia.
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