Mali

Bamako has cut ties with Kyiv, accusing it of complicity in an attack that killed Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner troops.

[…] With the departure of international military support missions, any progress made in the last decade towards improving general military capability of the country is now at risk. This is because Mali has moved from multiple military partnerships to a sole dependence on Russia. 

Mali says it has cut diplomatic relations with Ukraine, after a military official suggested Kyiv had played a role in deadly fighting near the Algerian border last month. Dozens of Malian soldiers and mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group were killed in days of clashes with Tuareg separatist rebels and fighters linked to al-Qaeda.

Separatist fighters and al-Qaida affiliates in Mali reportedly dealt the Russian military regiment Wagner its greatest battlefield defeat in Africa on July 26 and 27.  … Russian state media have reported on the events, and sought to implicate the West, or Ukraine, in the attacks.

Broad political consensus is needed for the country to benefit from some promising decisions made at the recent dialogue. 

Mali's junta has decided to reauthorise activities of political parties and political associations. Earlier this year they had been suspended due to accusations of political parties producing "sterile discussions" and "subversion".

The ECOWAS bloc confronted new challenges this week as the military leaders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso boycotted a summit of West African leaders. The three countries formed a "Confederation of Sahel States" in what they said was a bid to challenge France’s interference in the region. ECOWAS has asked Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye to try to convince the breakaway states to return to the bloc amid regional instability fears. 

An attack blamed on jihadists in central Mali killed more than 20 civilians on Monday, two local officials said, in the latest killings in the troubled Sahel region. 

Al Hassan Mahmoud was convicted of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during Islamist militants' one-year rule over Timbuktu in 2012. His crimes against women were particularly marked.

Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop has reaffirmed the “immediate and irreversible” withdrawal of his country, Niger and Burkina Faso from the West African regional grouping Ecowas, denouncing external influences and sanctions imposed by foreign powers, particularly Paris, which undermine the sovereignty of African states.