Coordinated gunfire and explosions rock Mali capital and other cities

Gunfire and explosions swept across Bamako and several other Malian cities, a coordinated burst of violence that reached the capital, the military base town of Kati, and strategic hubs in the country’s north and center. The spread of attacks made clear this was not an isolated clash but a test of how far armed groups can strike inside a state already strained by years of war and military rule.

Near Kati, outside Bamako, Reuters witnesses reported two loud explosions and sustained gunfire shortly before 6 a.m. Soldiers blocked roads around the area, where Mali’s military ruler, General Assimi Goïta, has his home base. In the capital, gunfire was also heard near Modibo Keïta International Airport, about 15 kilometers from the city center and adjacent to an air base used by Mali’s air force. An AP reporter near the airport saw a helicopter overhead, and residents said three helicopters were patrolling nearby neighborhoods.

The violence was not confined to Bamako. Reports also described gunfire and blasts in Sévaré, Kidal and Gao, signaling a multi-city assault across Mali’s strategic north and center. In Kidal, a former mayor said gunmen entered some neighborhoods and exchanged fire with the army, an especially stark sign that armed groups were willing to push into urban areas and challenge state forces street by street.

The attack carried sharp political weight because Kati sits at the center of the junta’s power structure. Goïta seized power in a 2020 coup and has held Mali under military rule since 2021, making any strike there a direct challenge to his authority. The timing also underscored how exposed Mali has become after the departure of outside stabilizing forces. The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, ended on June 30, 2023 and completed its withdrawal by December 31, 2023, while France ended its Barkhane mission in 2022.

The assault fits a broader pattern in Mali’s long war, which began with the 2012 Tuareg rebellion and evolved into a fight involving Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, the Islamic State group and other armed actors. In 2024, an al-Qaida-linked group claimed an attack on Bamako’s airport and a military training camp that killed scores of people, a reminder that the capital itself remains within reach. The latest strikes showed that reach again, not as a single flare-up, but as a widening security collapse that now stretches across Mali’s core urban and military nodes.