News24 | Two attacks in Mali, claimed by jihadists, kill more than 30
A column of black smoke rises above buildings as traffic passes the Africa Tower monument in Bamako on 26 April 2026. Deadly attacks in central Mali linked to jihadist violence as the country faces worsening instability, armed conflict and pressure on the ruling military junta.
More than 30 people were killed in attacks on villages in central Mali claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked group JNIM.The assaults come amid escalating violence following recent coordinated attacks on junta positions across the country.Malian authorities said military operations were launched in response, with several fighters reportedly killed.Two attacks in central Mali claimed by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists have killed more than 30 people, local, security, and administrative sources told AFP on Thursday.The two strikes come less than a fortnight after a large-scale, coordinated offensive by jihadists and separatists on junta positions, which plunged the West African country into a fresh security crisis.“At least 35 people were killed on Wednesday in near-simultaneous attacks” on the villages of Korikori and Gomossogou, a youth official said. A security and an administrative source both reported more than 30 dead in the assaults, claimed by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM).WAMAPS, a group of West African journalists specialising in Sahel security, said the provisional toll was more than 50 villagers killed and several still missing.“Villages have been looted and some properties set on fire,” the group added.READ | Mali on edge as insurgency tests junta’s resolveThe Malian army said on Thursday it had carried out “a targeted operation against terrorist armed groups” in the area and around a dozen fighters were “neutralised”.It did not give further details.The unprecedented assaults on 25 and 26 April by the JNIM and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), an ethnic Tuareg separatist movement, targeted strategic towns including Kidal in the desert north, and Kati, a garrison town near the capital Bamako.Defence Minister Sadio Camara, the 47-year-old architect of Mali’s military alliance with Russia, was killed by a car bomb at his residence.READ | Mali defence minister killed, fresh fighting between army and rebelsKidal and other towns and villages in the north were captured and are now under the control of the FLA and the jihadists, who have since imposed a blockade on Bamako.Since 2012, Mali has faced a deep security crisis fuelled in particular by violence from groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, as well as local criminal gangs and pro-independence groups.On 30 April, the JNIM called for a “common front” to “put an end to the junta” and usher in a peaceful and inclusive transition.The country has been under military rule since a back-to-back coups in 2020.
