Armed terrorist formations carried out one of the most large-scale and coordinated attacks on Mali's government forces in recent years. The BBC, Reuters, and Bloomberg write about this.
According to the Malian army, on the morning of April 25, jihadists attacked several facilities and barracks in the capital Bamako, as well as in other parts of the country. Witnesses reported explosions and gunfire near the Kati military base. Reports are also coming in of clashes in Gao and Kidal in the north of the country and in Sevare in its central part.
Based on footage from social media and media reports, the attacks may have involved the jihadist group Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). The militants claim they have established control over several positions in Gao and Kidal, but there is no independent confirmation of these statements. The Malian authorities, for their part, insist that the situation is under control, although clearing operations are still ongoing.
A representative of the Russian embassy said that the Russian Defense Ministry's African Corps, which replaced Wagner PMC fighters in the country, is supporting government forces repelling militant attacks in the area of the capital.
Apparently, the current episode was the "largest coordinated jihadist attack on Mali in recent years," said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel regional program in Mali at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Mali is currently ruled by a military junta that came to power as a result of the 2020 coup. To fight the rebels, the military authorities hired Russian mercenaries from Wagner PMC, who were later replaced by the Russian Defense Ministry's African Corps. As Bloomberg notes, even with Moscow's support, the situation in the country remains unstable and vulnerable.
The Russian Defense Ministry created the African Corps in early 2024, shortly after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin. This paramilitary structure was formed to protect Russian military and economic interests in African states. In total, the unit included 20,000 people, including Wagner PMC fighters who had fought in Mali.
The BBC Russian Service wrote that in all African countries that had severed ties with France, the presence of Russian mercenaries and political operatives was recorded, in particular those linked to former Wagner PMC head Yevgeny Prigozhin.
In June 2025, Wagner PMC announced that it was withdrawing its forces from Mali. It said that it had completed its "main task" — "all regional capitals have returned under the control of the legitimate authorities." After that, the mercenaries are returning to Russia.
Later, journalists reported on a network of prisons in Mali where local residents suspected of ties to jihadists or Tuareg separatists were subjected to torture.
At the end of December 2025, the Associated Press, citing witnesses, reported that fighters from the Russian Defense Ministry's African Corps were abducting, raping, and killing the country's civilians. According to experts, since 2023 at least 5,000 civilians have been killed in Mali. Nearly half of them died as a result of military attacks during which Russian mercenaries were present. At the same time, the scale of the losses is clearly understated, since an accurate count is difficult because of the remoteness of some territories.