Portugal Colonial - Gunfire rocks Mali districts, including junta stronghold: witnesses

Fighting was also heard in the northern cities of Gao and Kidal and Sevare in the centre of the landlocked nation that has been battling more than a decade of jihadist conflict.

The military, which seized power in two coups in 2020 and 2021, did not immediately comment on events and no claims of responsibility were made.

Helicopters flew over the capital Bamako on Saturday, including at the international airport, AFP correspondents said.

Mali has resources including gold and other valuable minerals. But since 2012, it has been grappling with a security crisis over attacks by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group and community-based criminal groups and separatists.

The military government, like its counterparts in neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, has severed ties with former colonial ruler France and several Western countries, to move closer politically and militarily to Russia.

- Jihadist turmoil -

US President Donald Trump's administration has sought to establish contacts with the three juntas, while Togo has sought to act as an intermediary between western nations and the three countries, which have formed their own Alliance of Sahel States.

Thousands of people have died in attacks in Mali since the jihadist turmoil erupted and tens of thousands of Malians have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, including Mauritania, in recent years.

Russia's Wagner Group, which had been fighting with Malian forces against jihadists since 2021, announced the end of its mission in June 2025, and has become the Africa Corps, an organisation under the direct control of the Russian defence ministry.

The junta has cracked down on critics and dissolved political parties.

It had pledged to hand over power to civilians by March 2024 but in July 2025, it granted Goita a five-year presidential term, renewable "as many times as necessary" and without an election.

Since September, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, an Al-Qaeda affiliate known by its Arab acronym JNIM, have been attacking fuel tanker convoys, bringing the capital Bamako to a standstill at the height of the crisis in October.

Despite several months of calm, Bamako residents faced a diesel shortage in March, with fuel prioritised for use in the energy sector.

O.Gaspar--PC