HARARE, April 27. /TASS/. The head of Mali’s National State Security Agency responsible for internal intelligence, Modibo Kone, and the country’s chief of staff, Major General Oumar Diarra, were wounded in a terrorist attack, Agence France-Presse reported, citing sources within Mali’s security services.
According to the agency, the attacks targeted the town of Kati, located near the capital, Bamako. Malian authorities have not officially confirmed that Kone and Diarra were injured. Sources cited by the French newspaper Le Monde said that Kone sustained severe injuries.
An AFP source within Mali’s security services also said that Malian President Assimi Goita was "evacuated from Kati" on April 25. Since then, he has been "in a safe location - at a special forces camp" near Bamako, the source added.
On April 25, units of radical groups launched simultaneous attacks on nearly a dozen cities in Mali, including Bamako, as part of a coordinated operation. By midday, the Malian General Staff reported that all militant attacks had been repelled and that the attackers had suffered heavy casualties. On April 26, fighting continued mainly in the city of Kidal in northeastern Mali, where units of the Azawad Liberation Front operate.
Since the summer of 2020, Mali has experienced two military coups. In May 2021, a ruling by Mali’s Constitutional Court appointed Colonel Goita as head of state for the transitional period. In the summer of 2025, Mali’s National Transitional Council, acting as parliament, approved Goita’s tenure as head of state until at least 2030, with the right to run for re-election.