The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (Jnim) and the Tuareg separatist movement of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) carried out coordinated attacks this weekend against different Malian towns. Several falsehoods on the results of this terrorist offensive were then disseminated by Internet users who support the junta in power in Mali.
Published on: 04/27/2026 - 10:47 p.m. Modified on: 04/29/2026 - 3:58 p.m.
A fog of misinformation surrounds a wave of unprecedented terrorist attacks in Mali since 2012. The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (Jnim), a jihadist movement linked to Al-Qaeda, launched a coordinated offensive in Mali on Saturday April 25 with the Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). Seven localities were targeted by the attacks, including the capital Bamako, the barracks town of Kati and the town of Kidal, located in the far north of the country, from where the Russian mercenaries of the Africa Corps withdrew.
While the offensive was still underway, Internet users sympathetic to the Malian transitional authorities published a series of false news stories in order to present a more favorable assessment of the military operations to the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) and their Russian allies in the Africa Corps.
Sadio Camara still alive? An old video
Several media announced, on Sunday April 26, the death of Mali's Defense Minister, Sadio Camara. The minister was killed the day before during an attack targeting his home, attributed to Jnim and carried out using a vehicle bomb driven by a suicide bomber. The extremely powerful blast also killed his second wife, one of his children and 17 soldiers.
On TikTok and Facebook, however, Internet users are beginning to deny the death of the minister: "THEY DECLARED HIM DEAD... HE RESPONDED TO THEM STANDING. [...] Sadio CAMARA is alive and well. Faced with disinformation, his response is clear: a man committed to his homeland does not disappear in the noise of lies."
As proof of Sadio Camara's life, they share a supposed video of the minister greeting the Malian population, filmed at night.
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However, as some Internet users point out in their comments, this video is old and the Minister of Defense of Mali is indeed deceased.
On April 27, General Issa Ousmane Coulibaly, spokesperson for the Malian government, confirmed on Malian television the death of Sadio Camara during the attack perpetrated on Saturday. Two days of national mourning were declared after the death of the Minister of Defense, the spokesperson announced.
“French mercenaries” captured? This is a video filmed in Malawi
Other Internet users claimed, on Sunday April 26, the day after the first attacks, that the Malian armed forces had managed to capture “hundreds of terrorists” during their counter-offensive. They share a video of supposed prisoners among whom are, according to the different versions put forward, French mercenaries or Franco-Algerian mercenaries "sent by Tebboune [the Algerian president, Editor's note] and Macron".
Since the start of the offensive, supporters of the transitional authorities and pro-Russian accounts have in fact accused - without providing evidence - France or even the United States of having supported the offensive of the Jnim and the FLA.
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A reverse image search (see here how to do it) allows you to find the original video. It was originally broadcast on July 18, 2024, by the media Times 360 Malawi. As its caption specifies, this video actually shows an arrest by the Malawi army of 237 nationals from different countries suspected of having entered the country illegally.
The video broadcast by Internet users supporting the transitional authorities appears to have been knowingly degraded to make its identification more difficult: it is in fact much blurrier than the original video. However, we can certify its origin thanks to the position of the people crouching in the foreground and the soldiers in the background.
1000 terrorists killed? The Malian General Staff puts forward a toll 5 times lower
Pro-Russian accounts celebrated the supposed effectiveness of Russian Africa Corps mercenaries, who they claimed saved Mali from a "Western coup."
More than “1,000 terrorists” were thus neutralized during the Russian-Malian counter-attack
If we cannot independently verify his statements, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Oumar Diarra, announced during the news of the Radio and Television Office of Mali (ORTM) on April 26, 2026 an assessment of the losses suffered by the FLA and Jnim five times lower than that put forward by the pro-Russian accounts. The general thus affirmed, according to a count made on "all the attacks which were carried out", that a little more than "200 terrorists" would have been neutralized.
Also read: Jnim-FLA alliance, weakened junta, departure of Russian mercenaries: what is happening in Mali?
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