Mali

Mali's military junta acted unconcerned by the announced withdrawal of German troops from the country. But civil society is worried about yet another ally abandoning military aid for crisis-beset Mali.

Mali's junta announced on Monday a ban on the activities of NGOs funded or supported by France, including humanitarian groups, amid a worsening row between Paris and Bamako.

Without urgent investment in climate mitigation and adaptation, countries in the Sahel risk decades of armed conflict and displacement, exacerbated by rising temperatures, scarcity of resources and food insecurity, the UN has warned in a report published on Wednesday.

Ivory Coast says it will withdraw from the UN’s peacekeeping operations in troubled Mali, a move coinciding with Britain’s announcement that it will quit the mission. A letter to the MINUSMA mission seen by AFP Tuesday said that Ivorian troops would withdraw by August 2023.

Britain announced Monday that it would cut short its troop deployment with the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Mali after relations with the country’s Russian-backed junta soured.

Mali's army and jihadist groups have carried out massacres and hundreds of human rights violations, the U.N. said in a report that details previously undocumented abuses against civilians. The U.N. Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) report, seen by AFP on Thursday, catalogues 375 rights violations in the country between July and September, attributing 163 to jihadist groups and 162 to the Malian army.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced that France was ending its Barkhane anti-jihadist mission in Africa after over a decade, saying a new strategy would be worked out with African partners. … He indicated that future strategy would be based on a far closer cooperation with African armies to make France's own deployment lighter and more dynamic.

A leading commander in Mali’s army has called on ethnic Tuaregs to fight jihadists in the north of the country in a WhatsApp audio message authenticated Monday by AFP. General El Hadj Ag Gamou, himself a Tuareg and a major figure in the Malian army’s fight against the Islamic State in the Great Sahara (ISGS) — which is affiliated with the Islamic State organization — called on the military help of all Tuaregs inside and outside the country.

Mali’s military government has been strengthening its relationship with Russia as anti-French sentiments peak in Bamako.

Mali's security situation has become "significantly worse" due to the ruling junta's choices, including an alleged decision to partner with Wagner, a Russian private security firm, a senior US official said Wednesday.