The leader of Mali Goita will take the responsibility of protecting the minister after he was killed | Story

The leader of the military government of Mali, Assimi Goitahe has taken over as the Minister of Defense following the killing of the previous Minister in last week’s riots by rebel groups.

State broadcaster ORTM reported on Monday that Goita was taking over the role following the death of Sadio Camara in a major attack is an al-Qaeda-linked group working with Tuareg separatists.

The report also cited the President’s order for Assimi Goita to remain President while he assumes the new role

General Oumar Diarra, who was the head of the army, has been appointed as the representative of the Ministry of Defense.

A car bomb explosion

During the military government’s attack on the stronghold, one week ago, Camara was killed by a car bomb at his home. The terrorist group managed to capture the main town in the north of Kidal in the worst attack in the West African country in almost 15 years.

The fighting killed at least 23 people, and the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said civilians and children were among the dead and wounded.

Mali has been facing security challenges since 2012. Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) controls large rural areas, especially in the north and central region, and has operative cells around the capital. Likewise, the ISIL (ISIS) group in the Sahel Province (ISSP) controls areas northeast of Menaka.

At the same time in the north, Tuareg separatists from the Liberation Front for Azawad (FLA) are fighting for an independent state called Azawad. They are fighting Malian troops and their Russian allies who have been deployed since 2021.

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

These groups sometimes work together: they work in the same places and they come from the same group of fighters from the oppressed areas. In recent attacks, JNIM has worked with the FLA against the military.

Goita’s military government took power after insurgency in 2020 and 2021, promising to restore security, but has failed to deliver.t cutting ties and its former colonial power, France, and the expulsion of French troops and United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Last July, military officials he has been assigned the leader of the conspiracy Goita’s five-year presidential term, which can be extended “many times” without an election.

Last month, Russia’s Wagner Group, which has been helping the Malian military to fight armed groups since 2021, said it would end its work. It has now become the Africa Corps, an organization directly controlled by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

After last month’s attacks, the rebels announced the closure of the capital Bamako in return for “helping the people of the armed forces”. However, the closure has had little effect, according to an AFP correspondent in the city.