Car bomb kills Sadio Camara at home during coordinated assaults by rebel groups including West African al-Qaida affiliate
Mali’s defence minister was killed in an attack on his residence, the government said on Sunday, a high-profile fatality during coordinated assaults staged the previous day by insurgents including the West African affiliate of al-Qaida.
A car laden with explosives driven by a suicide attacker drove into Sadio Camara’s residence in the town of Kati, the spokesperson, Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, said in a statement read out on state television. A firefight ensued, and Camara sustained injuries from which he later died in a hospital, Coulibaly said, adding that Mali would observe two days of mourning.
The statement followed media reports earlier in the day that Camara had been killed during the operation in Kati, roughly 9 miles (15km) north of the capital, Bamako, where the army’s main base is located.
The regional al-Qaida affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, known as JNIM, cooperated with a Tuareg-dominated rebel group to carry out more than half a dozen simultaneous attacks across the country, according to claims by both groups.
