The military power in place in Mali is wavering. The junta indeed lost one of its key figures on Saturday, during a series of unprecedented attacks.
Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara was killed in these coordinated attacks by jihadists from the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM, an ally of Al-Qaeda) and the Tuareg independentist rebellion of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). Who was this general, the architect of cooperation between Mali and Russia? 20 Minutes takes stock.
What role did Sadio Camara have in the junta?
Sadio Camara was one of the main figures of the regime in Bamako. He was appointed Defense Minister in October 2020, two months after the junta took power in a coup. Later becoming a Corps General, he was also promoted to the rank of Minister of State in February. “During the coup, he played an important role” and “was among the potential candidates” vying for leadership of the junta, recalls an analyst from the region speaking anonymously.
In 2021, Sadio Camara, a colonel but already Defense Minister, also played an important role when the first tensions arose between Mali and France, long present in the region in the fight against jihadism before being forced to leave.
Sadio Camara was the top of his promotion at the inter-armed military school of Koulikoro, a highly reputable institution where many Malian officers are trained. He later became commander of the second unit of Ménaka, general director of the Kati military Prytanée, and chief of staff of operations for the National Guard.
What were his ties with Moscow?
Sadio Camara, who had been trained in Russia just before the coup, was one of the main architects of the rapprochement between his country and Moscow. At the time when Russian mercenaries from the Africa Corps (a Russian paramilitary organization controlled by Moscow, present in Mali for the fight against jihadism) are withdrawing from Kidal, a strategic city in the north taken by the FLA, “one can wonder if his death did not weigh in this decision,” points out the same analyst.
A “discreet” but “very powerful” man, he was “in favor of the strong method of military eradication of jihadism,” without negotiation with armed groups “or with the Russian soldiers,” as indicated by a researcher associated with the International Academy for the Fight Against Terrorism (AILCT). Shortly after the junta took power, Sadio Camara began regularly announcing the receipt of military equipment provided by Russia: helicopters, weapons, ammunition… “He is the member of the junta who made the most trips to Russia,” adds the researcher.
Last year, he met with his Russian counterpart, Andreï Beloousov, after an official visit to the Kremlin by the leader of the junta, Assimi Goïta, who has not been seen nor spoken since the events of Saturday. Sadio Camara was also “very popular with the Russians regarding the AES”, the Alliance of Sahel States federation, which includes Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger and asserts a common policy.
The expansion of Russian activities in Mali had also led to him being economically sanctioned, along with two other officials, by the US government in July 2023. The sanctions were lifted in February.
What were the circumstances of his death?
Saturday morning, attacks were carried out simultaneously in several major cities of the country: in Kidal, Gao (north), Ségou (center), and in the city of Kati, on the outskirts of the capital, which houses the residences of some high dignitaries of the junta.
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The residence of General Sadio Camara, 47 years old and native of Kati, was directly targeted by “a booby-trapped vehicle driven by a kamikaze,” the government stated on Sunday night. The minister “engaged in exchanges with the attackers, some of whom he managed to neutralize,” according to the same source, specifying that he was “injured and then transported to the hospital, where he unfortunately succumbed.” The regime later declared a “national mourning of two days starting from Monday,” throughout the territory.
