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The Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), al Qaeda’s West African branch, claimed responsibility for a coordinated assault in Mali’s capital city of Bamako yesterday. The attack comes as JNIM continues to push further south within Mali, threatening the stability of Interim President Assimi Goita’s military regime.
The assault marks the first such operation inside Bamako in several years, though JNIM did strike at a major military base just outside of the capital in 2022.
In the early hours yesterday morning, gunshots rang out almost simultaneously at the gendarmerie school in Bamako’s Faladie District and the military side of the city’s main airport. The jihadists did not target the civilian side of the airport, according to both Malian security officials and JNIM.
JNIM was quick to claim credit for the operation, stating that its “inghimasi,” or suicide commandos, were able to raid the gendarmerie school, “killing dozens” of troops and alleged Russian Wagner mercenaries. At the airport, it also said its men burned at least six aircraft, including drones, along with several other military vehicles.
Malian officials have not given a precise casualty count as of this time of publishing, instead only stating that “a number of military personnel” were killed in the assault. Most of the casualties appear to have occurred at the gendarmerie school based on witness testimony and photos released by JNIM.
At the airport, Al Qaeda’s men mainly targeted aircraft, especially the presidential aircraft used by Assimi Goita, which can be seen burning in a photo released by JNIM. A few charred bodies at the airport can also be seen in unofficial videos published online, however.
In photos released after the raids, JNIM states that the operation was carried out by two teams of “inghimasi” from its Katibat Macina, a subunit responsible for central and southern Mali. The first, led by Salman al-Bambari, an ethnic Bambara, the main ethnic group of Bamako, targeted the gendarmerie school.
The second raid, led by Abdul Salam al-Fulani, an ethnic Fulani (also known as Fulbe or Peulh), one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa, assaulted the airport.
The two are representative of JNIM’s diverse recruitment pools and thus meant to highlight the diversity within its ranks.
Another photo shows additional militants, but the group did not name them. It also confirmed that all of its men were subsequently killed “in the path of God” after Malian forces responded to the scene.
A dire security situation in Mali and the wider Sahel
In many ways, the assault in Bamako acts to highlight the growing incapability of the Sahelian military regimes to beat back the ever-increasing advances of both al Qaeda’s JNIM and the Islamic State Sahel Province.
With the Goita regime particularly concerned with its own protection, the fact that JNIM was able to strike at two military sites simultaneously in the Malian capital only signals the growing weakness of security in Bamako.
JNIM has steadily pushed further southward inside Mali over the last two years, establishing clear attack zones that have essentially encircled Bamako in the southern region of Koulikoro. JNIM has also more regularly attacked in the nearby regions of Kayes and Sikasso.
In the eyes of JNIM, the encirclement of Bamako with this violence puts additional pressure on the ruling junta to either capitulate to the group’s demands of governing the Malian state by Sharia law or collapse entirely.
Mali is not alone in this dilemma. JNIM has also largely followed the same strategy of pushing closer to Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou, with its men contesting or even directly controlling territory surrounding it. According to estimates from late last year, jihadists controlled at least 40% of Burkinabe territory, the majority of which is controlled by JNIM.
The military regime of Ibrahim Traore has also failed to contain the jihadist violence inside Burkinabe territory, with violence regularly seeping into Benin and Togo. Though JNIM has been able to build bases in both countries, much of the violence in those countries still emanates from Burkina Faso.
In nearby Niger, also led by a military regime commanded by Abdourahamane Tchiani, the capital of Niamey is also steadily threatened by jihadists. Early last month, for instance, JNIM was able to abduct two Russian nationals working as geologists in the country, just 40 miles from Niamey.
JNIM’s rival, the Islamic State’s Sahel Province, also regularly attacks sites inside Niger’s Tillaberi Region outside of Niamey.
As the three Sahelian juntas, who collectively call themselves the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES), continue to push aside international support—except for help from Russia’s paramilitaries—they continue to find themselves in worse security situations. The three juntas will either have to eventually accept additional assistance to combat the jihadist threat or face the very real prospect of their regimes eventually falling.
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