Mali’s junta leader takes over defense ministry after the minister was killed in militant attacks

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali ‘s junta leader and the country’s president has assumed the duties of defense minister, authorities said Monday, after the incumbent was killed in sweeping, coordinated attacks by separatist and jihadi forces that stunned the West African nation.

According to a presidential decree announced on state television, Assimi Goita will remain president while also taking on the new role. Former armed forces chief of staff Gen. Oumar Diarra will assist him as deputy defense minister.

The announcement comes after Defense Minister Gen. Sadio Camara was killed on April 25, in a suicide bombing that targeted his home in Kati, a garrison town near the capital, Bamako.

Along with Bamako, Kati was one of several cities and towns attacked by militants from the al-Qaida-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, and rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front, a Tuareg-led separatist group, in one of the biggest coordinated attacks in the country in over a decade.

The Islamic militants and separatists seized several key towns and military bases.

Mali has been ruled by a military junta that took power in a 2020 coup, promising to restore security amid a surge of extremist attacks. Since seizing the country, the junta turned to Russia as its new security partner, forcing traditional allies like France and a U.N. peacekeeping mission to leave.

But the security situation has since worsened in Mali, analysts say, with record numbers of attacks and civilians killed, both by both Islamic fighters and government forces.

The announcement of Goita’s new role comes as tensions have escalated following arrests of military personnel, civilians and political leaders suspected of having ties to the separatists and militants responsible for the attacks.

On Saturday, a former Malian minister and junta critic was abducted from his home by armed men, his family told The Associated Press Sunday.

Meanwhile, JNIM fighters intensified their pressure on the military government by imposing a blockade around Bamako since last week, setting up road blocks and checkpoints and preventing traffic.

Transport companies told the AP that while the blockade disrupted travel on several roads last week, the armed groups have now blocked the only the route between Bamako and the Western city of Kayes, with other roads linking the capital to the rest of the country remaining largely passable.