(Adnkronos) – A situation of precarious calm in the Malian capital Bamako and in Kati, the ‘stronghold’ of the junta in power since 2020, after two days of intense clashes between military and jihadists allied with Touareg separatists. The Minister of Defense, Sadio Camara, was killed and the head of the junta, General Assimi Goïta, has not been seen or made any statements since the beginning of hostilities.
Mali was the scene of a series of unprecedented, coordinated attacks carried out on Saturday against strategic targets of the junta by jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jnim, an al-Qaeda ally) and rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front (Fla).
This morning, after two days of intense fighting between military and armed groups, calm has returned to Bamako and Kati, about 15 kilometers from the capital. In Kati, no gunshots were heard, but – as noted by the Afp agency – the ‘signs’ of what happened remain. Calm also reigns in the airport area, in the Sénou district, on the outskirts. Only military aircraft overflights were reported. “We count on the population for reports of suspicious people in the neighborhoods,” an officer from Sénou told Afp. It was here that on Saturday the Minister of Defense, one of the main officials of the junta, was killed during “terrorist” attacks with a “car bomb” that targeted his residence in Kati, according to the government’s reconstruction which speaks of a suicide attack.
