The joint force of Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali carried out “intense air campaigns” on Malian territory following weekend attacks by al-Qaeda-linked militants and Tuareg separatists that killed Mali’s defense minister and captured a strategic northern town, Niger’s government announced Thursday.
The assault over the weekend marked the largest attack on Mali in nearly 15 years. Militants and their Tuareg separatist allies seized the key northern town of Kidal and killed Defense Minister Sadio Camara, plunging the former French colony into a major security crisis.
The three neighbouring countries make up the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which created a joint force against extremist military groups initially comprising 5,000 troops. That force was expanded to 15,000 in mid-April.
Following a cabinet meeting Thursday evening, Niger’s government said it “welcomes the prompt and vigorous response of the units of the unified force, which conducted intense air campaigns in the hours following the cowardly attacks of April 25, 2026, in Gao, Menaka and Kidal.”
Sahel region bands together
Hours after the assault began, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesperson for the Malian Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front, called on Burkina Faso and Niger “to stay out of the events underway in Mali.”
Speaking at Camara’s funeral on Thursday, Burkina Faso’s Defense Minister Celestin Simpore, speaking on behalf of the AES, vowed to “hunt down” the “assassins”.
Meanwhile, approximately 1,000 people gathered in Niger’s capital, Niamey, on Thursday to express “solidarity with the Malian people,” according to live social media footage of the event. Crowds at the Djado Sekou Cultural Center chanted slogans including “down with the imperialists,” “down with the terrorists and their sponsors,” and “long live the AES,” as a photograph of Camara was displayed overhead.
Effred Mouloul, a representative from the coalition of civil society groups behind the rally, said, “To the Malian people, we say: ‘You are not alone, the active forces of Niger and of the AES stand by your side and express their full and complete solidarity.'”
Mouloul blamed African leaders for the “total lack of visible solidarity in the face of the targeted assassination” of Mali’s leaders and called for the withdrawal of French presence from AES territory.
Authorities in Niger have accused foreign powers, primarily France, of sponsoring the weekend attacks in Mali. Niger has repeatedly accused France of seeking to destabilize it, a charge Paris denies.