The leader of Mali’s military government, Assimi Goita, has taken on the role of defence minister following the killing of the previous minister in last week’s uprising by rebel groups.

State television channel ORTM reported on Monday that Goita was taking on the post following the death of Sadio Camara in large-scale attacks by an al-Qaeda-linked group working with Tuareg separatists.

The report noted the presidential decree that Assimi Goita will remain president while also taking on the new role

General Oumar Diarra, who was military chief of staff, has been appointed as delegate minister to the defence ministry.

Car bomb blast

During the assault on strongholds of the military government, more than a week ago, Camara was killed by a car bomb blast at his residence. The rebel armed groups were able to capture the key northern town of Kidal in the largest attack in the West African country in nearly 15 years.

The fighting killed at least 23 people, with the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF reporting that civilians and children were among the dead and injured.

Mali has been beset by security crises since at least 2012. Al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) controls large areas of rural territory, especially in the north and central regions, and has active cells around the capital. Similarly, the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in Sahel Province (ISSP) controls areas in northeastern Menaka city.

At the same time also in the north, armed Tuareg separatists of the Liberation Front for Azawad (FLA) group are fighting for an independent nation called Azawad. They are battling Mali’s military and allied Russian mercenaries who have been deployed since 2021.

Together with the JNIM, they control Kidal, but also want Gao, the largest city in the north, as well as Menaka and Timbuktu, to complete the self-declared state of Azawad.

Those groups sometimes work together: they operate in the same areas and draw from the same pool of fighters from aggrieved communities. In the latest widespread attacks, the JNIM worked with the FLA against the army.

Goita’s military government took power after coups in 2020 and 2021, pledging to restore security, but has struggled to achieve that.t It has cut ties with its former colonial ruler, France, and expelled French forces and United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Last July, military authorities granted coup leader Goita a five-year presidential mandate, which can be renewed “as many times as necessary” without an election.

The previous month, Russia’s Wagner Group, which had been aiding Malian forces against armed groups since 2021, said it would complete its mission. It has now become the Africa Corps, an organisation under the direct control of the Russian defence ministry.

In the wake of last month’s attacks, the rebels announced a blockade of the capital Bamako in retaliation for “the population’s support of the army”. However, that blockade has only partially been effective, according to an AFP correspondent in the city.