Mali leader Assimi Goïta assumes role of defence minister after attacks kill previous minister
Mali’s junta leader, Assimi Goïta, will assume the additional role of defence minister, according to a decree read on state TV on Monday, following the death of the previous minister in large-scale attacks.
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Mali’s army chief of staff, General Oumar Diarra, will serve as minister delegate for defence, said the report, which described the move as a “strategic decision coming in a security context that remains sensitive”.
The simultaneous attacks beginning on the morning of April 25 showed how fighters from different groups with different goals were able to strike at the heart of the West African country’s military government, which took power after coups in 2020 and 2021.
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Sadio Camara, the former defence minister who was instrumental in forging stronger ties with Russia, was killed when a car laden with explosives driven by a suicide attacker drove into his residence, the government has previously said.
The attacks set off fighting across Mali’s vast desert north, raising the prospect of significant gains by armed groups that have shown an increasing willingness to strike neighbouring countries and, analysts say, could eventually set their sights further afield.
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Malian authorities are investigating soldiers suspected of involvement in the attacks, a judicial official said on Friday.
Militants from Al-Qaeda’s branch in the Sahel region – the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) – joined forces with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), an ethnic Tuareg separatist movement, in the attacks against the junta and its Russian mercenaries.
A spokesman for the FLA vowed the separatists would conquer the country’s north and predicted that the junta, which seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, will “fall”.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
Crédito: Link de origem