Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists and Tuareg separatists struck five Malian cities in a coordinated assault that began Saturday, and Al Jazeera reported Sunday that Defence Minister Gen. Sadio Camara was killed when attackers detonated a suicide car bomb at his residence in the garrison town of Kati, 15 kilometers northwest of Bamako.

If confirmed, the death of Camara would deprive the military government of one of the architects of the back-to-back coups that brought it to power in 2020 and 2021, and would mark the deepest penetration yet of a junta stronghold by the insurgent coalition that has reorganized northern and central Mali. Interim President Assimi Goita, whose own residence is in Kati, was moved to safety and remains in command, Al Jazeera correspondent Nicolas Haque said.

What was hit

Fighters from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, known as JNIM, and the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, attacked Bamako's Modibo Keita International Airport and the adjoining air base on Saturday, along with positions in Kati, the central towns of Sevare and Mopti, and the northern cities of Gao and Kidal, according to The Associated Press. The Malian army said in a statement that "unidentified armed terrorist groups targeted certain locations and barracks" in the capital and that soldiers were "engaged in eliminating the attackers." Government spokesman Gen. Issa Ousmane Coulibaly said on state television that 16 people were wounded, including civilians and military personnel, and that several attackers had been killed. He gave no death toll.

The governor of Bamako district, Abdoulaye Coulibaly, imposed a three-day overnight curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. The U.S. Embassy in Bamako issued a security alert citing explosions and gunfire near Kati and the airport and told American citizens to shelter in place.

A revived alliance

JNIM claimed responsibility on its Azallaq website and said it had carried out the attacks jointly with the FLA, the AP reported. FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane said on Facebook that separatist fighters had taken control of Kidal and parts of Gao. Kidal had been a separatist stronghold until Malian troops and Russian mercenaries seized it in 2023, a victory the junta cast as proof that its pivot from France to Moscow was working.

Ulf Laessing, who heads the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told the AP the assault was the largest coordinated attack in Mali in years and noted that JNIM and Tuareg rebels had last joined forces in 2012, when they together overran the north. Analyst Bulama Bukarti told Al Jazeera the two sides agreed last year to cooperate and that "what we have seen over the last few days is the actual implementation of this agreement."

Russia in the line

NPR reported that Africa Corps mercenaries, the Kremlin-backed force that succeeded the Wagner Group, were fighting alongside Malian troops in several locations including the capital. The junta expelled French forces and the United Nations peacekeeping mission, MINUSMA, which completed its withdrawal in 2023, and has leaned on Russian contractors since. According to this year's Global Terrorism Index cited by NPR, the Sahel accounted for more than half of all terrorism deaths worldwide in 2025.

The African Union, the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the U.S. Bureau of African Affairs condemned the attacks, Al Jazeera reported.

What is contested

No right-leaning outlet appeared in today's reporting on the assault, leaving the junta's own narrative — that its forces are repelling the attackers and the situation is under control — as the only government-friendly framing on offer. Mali's army said the situation was under control hours after Saturday's first salvo. Heavy gunfire and explosions were still audible in Kidal on Sunday, residents told Al Jazeera, and the AP could not independently verify the FLA's territorial claims.

Bukarti told Al Jazeera he expected "more battles for control of territory and strategic locations" in the coming days. The junta has not publicly confirmed Camara's death.