World news | The Guardian•Today at 06:00
Taking power in Mali might be a stretch but insurgents can force hand of weakened regime
When al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic militants launched a series of attacks on military bases and raids into major towns in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso last summer, observers suggested they had been inspired by their counterparts in Syria, who had overthrown the regime of Bashar al-Assad and taken power six months or so earlier. The joint offensive launched last weekend by JNIM and its allies in Mali’s Tuareg minority community was carefully planned and coordinated. One was Mali’s defence minister, Sadio Camara, killed in a suicide attack on his residence in the garrison town of Kati.
