The al-Qaida-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin and the Tuareg-dominated Azawad Liberation Front enforce a strict blockade on Bamako, severing municipal logistics. Malian armed forces launched desperate retaliatory airstrikes against the rebel alliance after the ruling junta surrendered the northern town of Kidal in late April. The military collapse isolates the capital. Defense Minister Sadio Camara died in a suicide attack on his residence in Kati, located 15 kilometers northwest of Bamako. The simultaneous assassination of the military intelligence chief accelerates the structural dissolution of the state apparatus. Russian mercenaries failed to maintain the defensive perimeter, forcing the host government to absorb unhedged territorial liabilities. The rebel coalition continues systematic military operations across the center and north, neutralizing dozens of military outposts. Bamako exists now as a besieged enclave, physically disconnected from its peripheral resource basins.