Mali: calme précaire à Bamako et à Kati après les attaques jihadistes et touareg
A precarious calm reigned on Monday morning in Bamako and Kati, the garrison town and stronghold of the Malian junta, after two days of intense fighting between the army and jihadists allied with Tuareg separatists.
The country is plunged into uncertainty: Defense Minister Sadio Camara has been killed, and General Assimi Goïta, head of the junta, has not been seen and has not spoken since the start of hostilities.
Mali is therefore plunged into a critical security situation after the series of unprecedented coordinated attacks carried out on Saturday across the country against strategic positions of the ruling junta by jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM, allied with Al-Qaeda) and the Tuareg independence rebellion of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA).
The vast West African country has been plagued by conflict and jihadist violence since 2012. The junta seized power there in 2020.
After two days of intense fighting between the army and armed groups on Saturday and Sunday, calm had returned to Bamako and Kati, a garrison town and junta stronghold located about fifteen kilometers from the capital, by Monday morning. The two towns were the main theater of the fierce fighting between the two sides.
No gunfire was heard on Monday in Kati, where clashes had still raged the previous day. However, debris from burned-out cars and bullet holes were visible in the area, attesting to the intensity of the fighting, AFP observed.
Calm also reigned in the airport area, in the outlying district of Sénou. Only a few military planes were making rotations at regular intervals.
"We conducted sweeps throughout the night, which allowed us to relieve pressure on the checkpoints. Now we are counting on the population to report suspicious individuals in the neighborhoods," an officer in Sénou told AFP.
It was in this district that Defense Minister Sadio Camara, 47, one of the main officials of the junta, was killed on Saturday during "terrorist" attacks by "a car bomb driven by a suicide bomber" that targeted his residence in Kati, the government said in a statement Sunday evening.
The official announcement of the death of Mr. Camara, a native of the city, plunged Kati into mourning.
"It's as if they're attacking the city a second time. The shock is immense," a local resident told AFP by telephone.
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