Mali junta leader to assume extra role as defence minister

Mali’s junta leader, Assimi Goita, will assume the additional role of defence minister, according to a decree read on state TV on Monday, after the death of the previous minister in large-scale attacks.

Mali is facing a security crisis after an assault on junta strongholds led by Tuareg separatists and Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists more than a week ago, during which Defence Minister Sadio Camara was killed by a car bomb at his residence.

The separatists and jihadists were able to capture the key northern town of Kidal and on Friday took the strategic northern military base of Tessalit after it was surrendered by Mali’s army and its Russian mercenary allies.

The coordinated attacks marked the largest assault in the west African country in nearly 15 years.

The fierce fighting at various locations, including around the capital, Bamako, resulted in the death of at least 23 people.

United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Friday that civilians and children were among the dead and injured.

Militants from Al-Qaeda’s branch in the Sahel region — the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) — joined forces with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), an ethnic Tuareg separatist movement, in the attacks against the junta and its Russian mercenaries.

A spokesman for the FLA vowed the separatists would conquer the country’s north and predicted that the junta, which seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, will “fall”.

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