(FILES) Colonel Sadio Camara, Minister of Defense and Veterans of Mali, is seen at the meeting of Ministers of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), Ouagadougou, (Photo by FANNY NOARO-KABRة / AFP)
Bamako: Mali's government said that the defense minister, Sadio Camara, was killed after an attack targeted his residence, as part of a wave of coordinated assaults on military and civilian sites across the country, including the capital, Bamako.
Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, a government spokesman, said in a statement broadcast on state television that a car bomb driven by a suicide attacker struck Camara's residence in the town of Kati. A gun battle followed, and Camara was wounded before later dying in a hospital.
In a related development, the United Nations called for an international response to escalating violence and terrorism in the Sahel region of West Africa following the large-scale attacks in Mali.
Earlier, the Malian Army said that armed groups had carried out attacks targeting several military sites nationwide.
Local media reported that the assaults were accompanied by heavy clashes and explosions in multiple areas, including the strategic Kati military camp and the vicinity of Modibo Keita International Airport, as well as the northern cities of Kidal and Gao, and Segou in central Mali.
Mali has faced deadly attacks since 2012 by armed groups, bandits and criminal networks, with the violence spreading to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
