Fighting between rebels and Mali’s military junta continued on Sunday, with UN chief Antonio Guterres calling for greater security coordination in the Sahel region.
The attacks began on Saturday when Tuareg rebels, along with jihadists linked to al-Qaeda, launched attacks against Mali’s ruling military junta, which is backed by Russian mercenaries.
“Fighting resumed this morning in Kidal,” a spokesman for the Tuareg rebels said. Said on social media on Sunday. “We want to take out the last Russian fighters who have taken refuge in a camp.”
The fiercest battle in years
Tuareg separatists of the Azad Liberation Front have been fighting for years to create an independent state in northern Mali. He claimed to have caught Kidal on Saturday. This claim could not be independently verified.
The attacks on Saturday and Sunday were coordinated with the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group JNIM, which claimed responsibility for the blasts at Mali’s main airport in Bamako.
“This appears to be the largest coordinated attack in years,” said Ulf Lessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Germany.
“It is particularly worrying that JNIM is clearly coordinating […] Attacks with Tuareg rebels,” adding that the two camps previously joined forces in 2012, “have led to a security crisis in the region.”
All Malian governments since then have struggled to contain the threat in the Sahel region.
In 2020, General Assimi Goita seized power in a coup. He immediately broke relations with Mali’s former colonizer, France, and replaced French forces stationed in the north with Russian troops.
Mali’s defense minister assassinated
Mali’s Defense Minister Sadio Camara was killed by a car bomb left outside his residence on Saturday, his family said on Sunday.
The general was a senior member of the ruling military junta and was seen by some as a potential future leader.
At least three other family members were also killed in the blast, a relative told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity.
The bomb is believed to have been planted by the al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM.
UN chief delivers verdict on Sahel crisis
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” by the resumption of fighting in a region that already faces terrorist threats and humanitarian issues.
“The Secretary-General is extremely concerned by reports of attacks in several locations in Mali,” Guterres’ office said in a statement. “He strongly condemns these acts of violence, expresses solidarity with the Malian people and stresses the need to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Guterres also called for “coordinated international support to combat the growing threat of violent extremism and terrorism in the Sahel”. [region] And to meet immediate humanitarian needs.”
Regional bloc ECOWAS – from which Mali withdrew in 2025 – also condemned the attacks and called on “all states, security forces, regional mechanisms and populations of West Africa to unite and mobilize in a coordinated effort to deal with this crisis.”
Edited by: Shawn Sinico