Coordinated attacks signified a major escalation of insurgent violence in a region of West Africa where military leaders had seized power and warmed to Moscow in recent years.
The death of the defense minister, Gen. Sadio Camara, a central figure in the country’s military government, comes amid escalating violence in the region.
The armed group JNIM claimed to have seized two key cities and destroyed the defense minister’s residence in a coordinated offensive that experts said was a major escalation in yearslong hostilities.
Molenbeek was branded a hotbed of radicalization after terrorists hit Brussels and Paris a decade ago, but new challenges show that reinvention doesn’t come easy.