Bamako – Mali’s army bases have come under large-scale coordinated attacks claimed by an al Qaeda-linked group and Tuareg rebels, in one of the boldest operations insurgents have mounted against the West African country’s military-led government.
The attacks hit multiple sites in and around the capital Bamako on Saturday, with the army saying it had killed “several hundred” assailants and repelled the assault. A large-scale sweep operation was subsequently launched in Bamako, the nearby barracks town of Kati and elsewhere across the gold-producing country.
Government spokesperson Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, speaking on state television on Saturday evening, said 16 people had been injured and that the situation was completely under control in all affected areas. Bamako authorities announced an overnight curfew lasting three days. 
Al Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) issued a statement claiming responsibility for attacks in Kati, on the Bamako airport and in localities further north, including Mopti, Sevare and Gao. It also said the city of Kidal was “captured” in an operation coordinated with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a Tuareg-dominated rebel group. FLA spokesperson Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane said on social media that its forces had taken control of positions in Gao and one of two military camps in Kidal. Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
“This looks like the biggest coordinated attack for years,” said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
The Bamako airport was closed, with flights turned back or cancelled. South of Bamako, people trying to access the airport found themselves almost inside a combat zone, with heavy gunfire nearby and helicopters overhead, according to one passenger. Two explosions and sustained gunfire were heard shortly before 6am near the military’s main base in Kati, north of Bamako, and shots were still ringing out there more than four hours later, according to a Reuters witness and two residents. Two witnesses said Mali Defence Minister Sadio Camara’s house in Kati was destroyed in the attack.
A witness in the central town of Sevare said shooting began there at 5am and that gunfire had come from all directions.
The selection of targets drew attention from analysts. Heni Nsaibia, senior West Africa analyst at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, said Kati and Bamako are “at the heart of the regime” and that Kidal, the site of a symbolic military victory in 2023, has been central to the government’s “narrative of regaining territorial control.”
The US embassy told its citizens to shelter in place, while Britons were advised against travel to Mali. The army had said shortly after 11am that the situation was under control, but a resident of Gao reported hearing a loud explosion and exchanges of fire between soldiers and insurgents at around noon. By evening an uneasy calm prevailed in Gao, where the governor declared an overnight curfew.
Saturday’s attacks signal a potential escalation in an insurgency that began in 2012. In September 2024, JNIM attacked a gendarmerie training school near Bamako airport, killing some 70 people, and a year later announced a blockade on fuel imports.
Mali’s current government, headed by Assimi Goita, took power after coups in 2020 and 2021 with a pledge to restore security, which it has so far struggled to deliver. Goita’s government has leaned on Russian mercenaries for support while initially spurning cooperation with Western countries, but has recently pursued closer ties with Washington.
JNIM said on Saturday it had not targeted the Malian military’s Russian partners and wanted to build a “balanced and effective future relationship.” Russia’s embassy in Bamako strongly condemned what it called the “cowardly” attacks, while Russia’s foreign ministry said in a separate statement that “preliminary information suggests that Western security forces may have been involved in their training.”
Mali’s foreign minister told Reuters that neighbouring states and foreign powers were supporting terrorist groups, but declined to name the countries.
