Oumar Traoré, chief of staff to Colonel Assimi Goita, was killed in an ambush earlier this week.

The chief of staff to the head of Mali’s junta was among four people killed in an attack on Tuesday, April 18, a document from the presidency said on Thursday, April 20.

Oumar Traoré, chief of staff of Colonel Assimi Goita, was killed in the ambush some 400 kilometers north of the capital Bamako, near the Mauritanian border.

His funeral will take place on Thursday in Kati, a garrison town near Bamako, the document said. Traore was part of an official delegation that had traveled to the area, near the town of Nara and the Wagadou forest, to scout prospective drilling sites for local populations.

The document identifies three other victims including a security guard, a contractor and a driver. Another driver is missing, the document read. The attack has not yet been claimed.

Mali has been battling a security and political crisis since jihadist and separatist insurgencies broke out in the north of the country in 2012.

Since 2020, it has been ruled by a military junta now led by Goita. Under international pressure, the junta pledged to organize elections in the country next year.