Mali’s Defence Minister, General Sadio Camara has been killed during coordinated attacks on military sites in the country.
Camara’s death comes a day after his residence in the garrison town of Kati came under attack during simultaneous attacks by an al-Qaeda affiliate and Tuareg rebels.
Camara was a central figure in the military government that seized power after back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.
Haque said attackers carried out a suicide car bomb assault on Camara’s residence in Kati, a heavily fortified military town about 15km (9 miles) northwest of the capital, Bamako, where Interim President Assimi Goita also lives.
“Kati is considered one of the most secure locations in the country, yet fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), along with Tuareg fighters from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), were able to launch the attack”.
Islamic militants and separatists had attacked several locations in Mali’s capital and other cities on Saturday in one of the largest coordinated attacks in the country in recent years.
The al-Qaida-linked militant group JNIM claimed responsibility for the attacks on Bamako’s international airport and four other cities in central and northern Mali on its website, Az-Zallaqa.
It said the attacks were carried out jointly with the Azawad Liberation Front, a Tuareg-led separatist group.