{"id":12079,"date":"2026-04-26T22:21:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T22:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/malis-defence-minister-sadio-camara-killed-amid-coordinated-attacks-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T22:21:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T22:21:38","slug":"malis-defence-minister-sadio-camara-killed-amid-coordinated-attacks-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/26\/malis-defence-minister-sadio-camara-killed-amid-coordinated-attacks-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali\u2019s Defence Minister Sadio Camara killed amid coordinated attacks – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Death of key figure seen as big blow for Mali\u2019s military government as fighting with armed groups continues.<\/em>
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Mali\u2019s Defence Minister, General Sadio Camara has been killed in coordinated attacks on military sites nationwide, a government spokesperson has confirmed.
Camara \u2060was killed when \u2060assailants targeted his house, the spokesperson, \u2060Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, \u2060said in \u2060a statement on Sunday.
Camara\u2019s residence in the garrison town of Kati<\/a> came under assault on Saturday 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.
\u201cHe was one of the most influential figures within the ruling military leadership and had been seen by some as a possible future leader of Mali,\u201d said Al Jazeera\u2019s Nicolas Haque, who has reported extensively from Mali.
\u201cHis death is a major blow to the country\u2019s armed forces.\u201d
Haque said attackers carried out a suicide car bomb assault on Camara\u2019s residence in Kati, a heavily fortified military town about 15km (9 miles) northwest of the capital, Bamako, where Interim President Assimi Goita also lives.
Camara\u2019s second wife and two of his grandchildren were also killed in the attack on his home, the AFP news agency reported.
\u201cKati is considered one of the most secure locations in the country, yet fighters from the al-Qaeda-linked Jama\u2019at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), along with Tuareg fighters from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), were able to launch the attack\u201d.
Goita was \u201calive and well in a secure location\u201d, Haque added.
\u201cWhen the attack took place, he was moved to safety, so he remains in command of the military,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gunmen attacked several other locations across Mali, including Bamako, as well as Gao and Kidal in the north and the central city of Sevare.
Haque said the sounds of heavy gunfire and loud explosions could still be heard in Kidal on Sunday, according to residents. \u201cThis remains an ongoing operation more than 24 hours after it began,\u201d he added.
Analyst Bulama Bukarti said it was likely that \u201cmore battles for control of territory and strategic locations\u201d would happen in the coming days.
He also highlighted how armed groups that were previously fighting each other had now joined forces to attack their common enemy \u2013 the state of Mali
\u201cThese are two groups fighting for different objectives,\u201d Bukarti told Al Jazeera.
\u201cBut they came together last year and said they would work together going forward, and what we have seen over the last few days is the actual implementation of this agreement.\u201d
The African Union, the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the United States Bureau of African Affairs and the EU condemned the attacks.<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death of key figure seen as big blow for Mali\u2019s military government as fighting with armed groups continues.SaveShareMali\u2019s Defence Minister, General Sadio Camara has been killed in coordinated attacks on military sites nationwide, a government spokesperson has confirmed.Camara \u2060was killed when \u2060assailants targeted his house, the spokesperson, \u2060Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, \u2060said in \u2060a statement on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}