Rebels on the streets of Kidal in northern Mali.Image: keystone
A series of attacks rocks Mali. Insurgents targeted the military government and killed the defense minister. This is a bitter setback for Russia.
April 27, 2026, 7:43 p.mApril 27, 2026, 7:43 p.m
That’s what happened
On Saturday morning there was an offensive in Mali with numerous attacks on various cities and military bases. Jihadists and Tuareg rebels are behind this. The offensive aims to isolate the north.
Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara was killed in a controlled attack on the government. Camara was one of the five members of the military government and was considered number two within the junta.
But Russian mercenaries, the so-called Afrika Korps, were also targeted by the attackers. The Russians initially responded with airstrikes from helicopter gunships to support the Malian government.
Africa Corps
The Afrika Korps in Mali consists of Russian expeditionary forces. Parts of it are made up of former fighters from the Wagner mercenary force, which has no longer been officially present in the country since 2023. The Afrika Korps is considered Wagner’s de facto successor organization.
Image: keystone
The Tuareg rebel group FLA then declared that it had captured the town of Kidal in the northeast of the country. Kidal is a strategic hub in the Sahara. The region is difficult to access and often serves as a retreat for armed groups. Therefore, control of Kidal is crucial to countering the influence of al-Qaeda-affiliated groups and other armed actors in the Sahel.
Afrika Korps withdraws from Kidal
The Russians were advised to withdraw from the city to avoid being the target of further attacks. The FLA called on Russia to “assume responsibility as an international actor and its commitment on the side of the Bamako military junta (Editor’s note: capital of Mali) to rethink.”
The members of the Afrika Korps complied with the request and withdrew from Kidal.
Over the past 14 years, the country has been rocked by uprisings, jihadist threats, the invasion and later withdrawal of French troops and several military coups. The current attacks represent a massive escalation of the conflict in Mali, says Jean-Hervé Jezequel from the International Crisis Group New York Times. The armed groups have thus ushered in a “new phase”.
No government member has appeared in public since the attacks began. It is unclear where Mali’s junta chief and President General Assimi Goita is.
These warring parties are involved
On one side is the jihadist alliance JNIM, the radical Islamist group for the defense of Islam and Muslims. It is allied with the Tuareg rebel alliance FLA, the Front for the Liberation of Awazad.
The flag of Azawad.Image: IMAGO / Pond5 Images
The alliance is not new, although the groups have different goals. While JNIM wants to establish an Islamist state, the Tuareg are fighting primarily for an independent state of Azawad in northern Mali. Their cooperation is therefore considered a tactical alliance against a common enemy: the military government in Bamako.
In the north of Mali there is There have been repeated uprisings by the Tuareg group for a long time. And the pressure on Bamako from jihadist groups has also increased recently.
On the other hand, the Malian military government is fighting together with the Russian Africa Corps. The military government under Assimi Goita took power after the coups of 2020 and 2021. She promised to restore security – but is having difficulty doing so. The junta largely rejects cooperation with Western cities and instead counts on Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin with Assimi Goita, President of Mali, 2025.Image: keystone
That’s why the attacks are a setback for Russia
Mali – like its neighboring states Niger and Burkina Faso – has broken off relations with the former colonial power France and other Western countries. Instead, the country has moved closer to Russia.
According to Torsten Heinrich, Kidal – the city that has now been taken – is a symbol of the success of the Afrika Korps. The Military historian explains in a videothat the loss of the city would also be a bitter moral setback for the Russian armed forces and the military junta.
The withdrawal from Kidal now means that the Russians believe they can no longer hold out in the north, says Heinrich. And that despite the fact that “there was by no means only a small group on site”. Due to the war in Ukraine, Russia is currently hardly in a position to send reinforcements.
The latest attacks once again show how fragile the situation in Mali is – despite support from Russia. For Moscow, there is more at stake than just military influence: Setbacks in Mali could damage Russia’s credibility as a security actor.
If the military government fails to retake the north, it could not only weaken the junta’s position but also call Russia’s strategy in the Sahel into question. For Mali itself, the danger is growing that the conflict will continue to expand and lasting stabilization will become even more distant.