Mali

Germany joined France on September 15 in expressing concern about reports of an agreement between Mali’s new military rulers and the Vagner Group, a Russian military contractor with ties to the Kremlin.

Burkina Faso and Mali agreed Tuesday to mount joint military operations against jihadist groups who have ravaged Africa’s Sahel region, Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara said Tuesday.

The West African bloc ECOWAS said on Tuesday that it feared potential delays in elections in Mali aimed at restoring civilian rule following a coup last year. In a statement, the group said it remained "worried by the lack of concrete action" to prepare for the vote, which has been promised for February 2022 by strongman Colonel Assimi Goita.

Mali's interim government on Saturday condemned an armed police protest that led to the liberation of a special forces commander detained for allegedly using brute force to quash protests last year. 

The colonels who rule Mali have repeatedly said they will restore civilian rule in early 2022, but with less than six months to go before promised elections, doubts about the timetable are deepening.

The chaotic aftermath of Washington’s troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is being followed with a mix of trepidation and glee thousands of kilometers away — in Africa’s Sahel, where another foreign power, France, also vows to wind down its long-running counterinsurgency operation, at least in its present form.  

Chad on Saturday said it will recall 600 troops, half its contingent, from the multinational G5 Sahel force in the troubled three-borders region of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where an upsurge in jihadist violence has cost thousands of lives.

Suspected jihadists mounted an ambush Thursday on an army convoy in central Mali that left 15 soldiers dead and 34 wounded, 10 of them seriously, the army said.

Gunmen have attacked several villages in northern Mali, “shooting at anything that moved” and killing at least 51 people in apparent retribution for the recent arrest of several rebel leaders, authorities said.

The UN expert said that some Malians expressed serious doubts about the political will of the authorities to guarantee the security of civilians, especially in the regions most affected by conflict.