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| Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) coalition ride on the back of a pickup truck in Kidal, on April 26, 2026 - AFP |
Gunfire was still heard all of Sunday in Kati, a military stronghold for the junta, near the capital, Bamako.
In addition to General Sadio Camara, the junta's Defence Minister, several other people were killed.
According to RFI's information from our regional correspondent, Serge Daniel, at least one civilian was found dead near the northern entrance to the city later on Sunday.
The regional al Qaeda affiliate, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, known as JNIM, cooperated with a Tuareg-dominated rebel group to carry out these simultaneous attacks in over half a dozen places across the country, as confirmed officially by both groups.
"The events represent the most coordinated offensive in Mali in recent years, involving fighters from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and Tuareg-led rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), who have simultaneously targeted multiple highly strategic locations, including Bamako, Kati, Mopti, Sévaré, Gao, Bourem, and Kidal," Heni Nsaibia, the Senior West Africa Analyst at ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data), said.
"What stands out is not only the scale, but the deliberate selection of targets, he added. "Kati and Bamako are the heart of the regime, making any militant advances there particularly significant."
Unstable situation
Kati is still reeling from the attacks. The assailants used a truck packed with explosives to attack, striking the minister's house and neighbouring homes, including a nearby mosque.
In the north of the country, the city of Kidal has fallen back under rebel control.
These had been driven out in November 2023 by the Malian army and Russian mercenaries, but had spent years trying to come back.
The Russian mercenaries of Africa Corps (ex-Wagner) requested and received the green light on Sunday from the new rulers of Kidal to leave the region.
This withdrawal further weakens the regular troops on the ground.
The populations, for their part, are worried about potential added violence and fear even greater instability.
The African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf on Saturday expressed "deep concern" over the attacks. The chairperson is closely following security developments, and "strongly" condemned these acts, "which risk exposing civilian populations to significant harm."
The European Union and the West African regional body Ecowas also condemned these attacks, as well as neighbouring Senegal's President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Junta's failures
According to Étienne Fakaba Sissoko, academic and spokesperson for the Coalition of Forces for the Republic (led by Imam Mahmoud Dicko, currently in exile in Algiers), "the junta is disoriented," as he told RFI's Christophe Boisbouvier. "We don't know who is ruling Mali."
"For several years now, we've been saying that the military strategy implemented by the transitional government was flawed," Sissoko continues.
"A purely military approach hasn't yielded tangible results in recent years, and outsourcing the country's security to Russian mercenaries was a danger that needed to be avoided. So, we weren't listened to. And now, unfortunately, the consequences of the government's strategy are being felt on the ground."
General Sadio Camara was the one who had worked to bring Wagner to Mali. He had studied in Russia and spoke Russian.
"He was also the main person responsible for the events of 21 May, 2021, when the second coup took place, therefore he was an important link in the junta's apparatus," the academic added.
Meanwhile, there has been no news of the junta's leader, General Assimi Goïta.
"What is clear is that his silence demonstrates how disoriented he is, how disoriented the government is, and that the country is now adrift, in a state of utter desolation," Sissoko concludes.
The country is currently facing a very uncertain future, with a potential partition of the north, and no real executive power in charge.
"We don't know who is governing; we don't know who is in charge, who is making the decisions, and how it all works," Sissoko underlines.
He also insists that there is a real risk of increased jihadist violence, and insists that "the junta must leave in order to open up new perspectives."
Drop in normal activities
In Kati, economic activity is slow to resume. For a trader in the city's main market, the situation is not reassuring, as the markets remain closed and traders still live in fear.
"We were scared. They started early in the morning. No one dared to go outside. The noise of the explosions was so loud that everyone stayed indoors," he told RFI, anonymously.
Locals then heard that some of the terrorists had escaped. Between Saturday and Sunday, the night was peaceful, but early Sunday morning, the grunfire started again.
"Now things are slowly calming down, but the market is still closed," the trader continues. "No shopkeeper has dared to open their store. No one has gone to the market. People are only just starting to venture out of their homes to go for a walk in town."
Fifteen kilometers away, calm reigns in Mali's capital, Bamako. But people worry.
In Mopti, in the centre of the country, anxiety prevails too, even though activities are gradually resuming, locals told RFI.
Inhabitants urge the military authorities to do everything in their power to restore peace and security to the people of Mopti.
Beginning of the end?
The nationwide spread and importance of the locations attacked point to a "coordinated attempt to seriously challenge state authority", ACLED's
Nsaibia said, at both the centre and the periphery, and potentially to undermine the regime’s hold on power.
"While JNIM and the FLA appear to have gained momentum, the situation remains highly fluid and rapidly evolving."
The attacks represent "a major escalation in the conflict, a new stage reached by armed groups in the strategy that has driven them in recent years to attack Mali’s main urban centres", International Crisis Group also said.
Whether the Malian armed forces and their Russian partners can regain control will be essential—not only militarily, but for the survival of the regime in Bamako, Nsaibia concludes.
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