Mali’s army said armed “terrorist” groups were attacking several military positions in junta-ruled west African country of Mali on Saturday, with fighting ongoing
Gunfire was heard in multiple districts including the international airport in the capital Bamako an AP reporter and residents said.
An AP journalist in Bamako heard sustained heavy weapons and automatic rifle gunfire coming from Modibo Keïta International Airport, around 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the city center, and saw a helicopter patrolling over nearby neighborhoods.
Gunfire was also heard in Kati, the home of military ruler General Assimi Goita, witnesses and a security source told AFP, as well as Gao, the main northern city, and Sevare in the centre of the landlocked nation.
Mali has been battling more than a decade of jihadist conflict and the military took power in two coups in 2020 and 2021.
Since 2012, it has been grappling with a security crisis over attacks by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group and community-based criminal groups and separatists.
The military government, like its counterparts in neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, has severed ties with former colonial ruler France and several Western countries, to move closer politically and militarily to Russia.
Russia’s Wagner Group, which had been fighting with Malian forces against jihadists since 2021, announced the end of its mission in June 2025, and has become the Africa Corps, an organisation under the direct control of the Russian defence ministry.
The junta has cracked down on critics and dissolved political parties.
It had pledged to hand over power to civilians by March 2024 but in July 2025, it granted Goïta a five-year presidential term, renewable “as many times as necessary” and without an election.
Since September, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, an Al-Qaeda affiliate known by its Arab acronym JNIM, have been attacking fuel tanker convoys, bringing the capital Bamako to a standstill at the height of the crisis in October.
Despite several months of calm, Bamako residents faced a diesel shortage in March, with fuel prioritised for use in the energy sector.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)
