On April 25, 2026, separatist and jihadist groups attacked Bamako, several military facilities, and Bamako-Senou Airport. It was one of the largest assaults on Mali in recent years. The next day, rebels said they had retaken Kidal, while Russia’s African Corps withdrew from the city.
According to Western media reports, the assault involved the jihadist Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and the Tuareg Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). The former seeks to impose sharia law, while the latter demands independence for northern Mali. After the attacks, flights were canceled in Bamako, roadblocks appeared across the city, and gunfire continued in some districts.
Figaro, Le Monde, and Jeune Afrique reported that an explosives-laden vehicle detonated near the residence of Defense Minister Sadio Camara. Government spokesman Issa Ousmane Coulibaly later confirmed his death. According to the authorities, a suicide bomber targeted the minister’s home, after which Camara joined the fight, was wounded, and later died in hospital. People inside a nearby mosque were also injured.
“Today it became known that the Russians and government troops left the town of Kidal to the advancing Tuaregs,” military analyst Ilya Barabanov told BBC Russian Service.
He said this meant the Malian authorities had effectively lost control of the country’s northeast. In his assessment, after Wagner fighters left in 2025, they were fully replaced by the Russian Defense Ministry’s African Corps. Denis Korotkov of the Dossier Center said there were no exact figures for the Russian contingent, but estimated it at 1,500 to 2,500 fighters.
Analysts say Moscow sharply expanded its influence in the Sahel after a series of coups, offering military backing without demands on democracy or human rights. Yet despite Russia’s growing role in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, security in the region has not improved, and jihadist attacks have continued to increase.