Russia Says Its Forces Thwarted Mali Coup Attempt

(MENAFN) Russian military units deployed in Mali say they crushed an armed attempt to overthrow the country's government last week, as coordinated militant attacks across the nation claimed the life of the country's defense minister, Moscow announced Tuesday.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that "illegal armed formations attempted an armed coup" on April 25, and that its African Corps forces moved to neutralize the threat before it could succeed.

"During fierce battles against superior enemy forces, units of the African Corps inflicted irreparable losses on them in personnel and equipment, forcing them to abandon their plans and preventing the coup, thereby preserving the authority of the legitimate government and preventing mass civilian casualties," it said.

The announcement coincides with a sweeping wave of coordinated assaults launched Saturday by armed factions including JNIM — an al-Qaeda-affiliated militant organization — and the Azawad Liberation Front, a Tuareg-led rebel coalition. The attacks struck multiple cities simultaneously, reaching as far as the capital Bamako.

The human toll at the highest levels of Mali's government was severe. In an official address broadcast Sunday on national television, Gen. Issa Ousmane Coulibaly confirmed that Defense Minister Sadio Camara had been killed in the violence.

According to the government communiqué, a suicide attacker drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into Minister Camara's residence in Kati — a strategically significant military town on the outskirts of Bamako — and detonated the device. Camara is reported to have engaged his attackers in direct combat, killing several of them before sustaining critical wounds. He was evacuated to a medical facility, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

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