{"id":33254,"date":"2026-04-29T08:07:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=33254"},"modified":"2026-04-29T08:07:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:07:51","slug":"mali-leader-meets-russian-envoy-as-attacks-escalate","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/mali-leader-meets-russian-envoy-as-attacks-escalate\/","title":{"rendered":"Mali leader meets Russian envoy as attacks escalate"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The leader of Mali\u2019s military government, Assimi Goita, met with Russia\u2019s ambassador on Tuesday, according to a post on his office\u2019s social media account, his first public appearance since insurgents launched coordinated attacks, over the weekend.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">West Africa\u2019s al Qaeda affiliate and a Tuareg-dominated separatist group hit Mali\u2019s main army base and the area near Bamako\u2019s airport, while also pushing Russian troops supporting government forces out of Kidal, in the north.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The attacks have triggered a scramble for territory across Mali\u2019s vast desert north, raising the prospect of significant gains by armed groups that have shown an increasing willingness to strike neighbouring countries and, analysts say, could eventually set their sights further afield.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Mali\u2019s Defence Minister, Sadio Camara, was killed in Saturday\u2019s attacks. Goita had not been seen until the social media post published, on Tuesday afternoon.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">During Tuesday\u2019s meeting, Goita and Russian Ambassador Igor Gromyko, \u201cdiscussed the current situation and the strong partnership between Bamako and Moscow,\u201d according to the post.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Gromyko \u201creaffirmed his country\u2019s commitment to supporting Mali in the fight against international terrorism,\u201d it said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">The scale of the offensive, which hit multiple sites across the West African country, demonstrated an unprecedented ability by groups with differing objectives to work together and strike at the heart of the military government. Authorities have said the situation is under control.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":33152,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-33254","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Mali\u2019s Defence Minister, Sadio Camara, was killed in Saturday\u2019s attacks.","published_date":"","news_description":"Mali\u2019s Defence Minister, Sadio Camara, was killed in Saturday\u2019s attacks.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33257,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33254\/revisions\/33257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=33254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}