Mali’s junta leader and president Assimi Goita assumed the duties of defense minister after Defense Minister Gen. Sadio Camara was killed in a suicide bombing on April 25, according to a presidential decree announced on state television.
The decree said Goita would remain president while taking on the defense portfolio, and it named Gen. Oumar Diarra, a former armed forces chief of staff, as deputy defense minister.
Camara’s death came after sweeping, coordinated attacks that authorities described as having stunned Mali and struck multiple locations, including Kati, a garrison town near Bamako. The suicide bombing targeted Camara’s home in Kati, where it was reported that the defense minister was killed.
The attacks were carried out by militants from the al-Qaida-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, known as JNIM, and by rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front, a Tuareg-led separatist group. JNIM and the separatists seized towns and military bases in the coordinated campaign, with Bamako and Kati among the cities and towns attacked.
In Mali, the military junta took power in a 2020 coup after pledging to restore security amid a surge in extremist attacks. Since the takeover, the junta has turned to Russia as a security partner, and it has pushed traditional allies including France and a U.N. peacekeeping mission to leave.
Analysts have said the security situation has since worsened, with record numbers of attacks and civilians killed by both Islamic fighters and government forces. Tensions have also risen within the government as authorities arrested military personnel, civilians and political leaders suspected of having ties to the separatists and militants linked to the recent attacks.
The defense ministry reshuffle came as JNIM fighters intensified pressure on the military government by imposing a blockade around Bamako, setting up road blocks and checkpoints that prevented traffic. Transport companies told The Associated Press that while the blockade disrupted travel on several roads last week, armed groups had blocked the only route between Bamako and the western city of Kayes, while other roads linking the capital to the rest of the country remained largely passable.
The announcement also landed amid reports of heightened detentions and arrests. A former Malian minister and junta critic was abducted from his home by armed men over the weekend, his family told the AP.
MSI previously reported that Mali held a funeral for former defense minister Sadio Camara after he was killed in insurgent attacks.