Mali

Mali’s transitional government has ordered an envoy of the 15-nation West African regional bloc to leave the country within 72 hours because of actions “incompatible with his status.”

Mali’s government has denied that it plans to negotiate with jihadists, walking back an earlier statement from its religion ministry saying that it would do so.

French authorities have announced the death of Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahraoui, founder of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. In this Q&A, Crisis Group experts Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim and Jean-Hervé Jezequel explain how his demise could open space for dialogue among militants and Sahelian governments.

Mali’s government says that it has asked the country’s main Islamic body to open peace talks with leaders of al-Qaeda’s local affiliate in an effort to end a decade of conflict. … Such an approach is vigorously opposed by Mali’s chief military ally France, whose president, Emmanuel Macron, said in June that French troops would not conduct joint operations with countries that negotiate with such groups.

Mali’s prime minister reiterated his claim that France was deserting the West Africa country and accused Paris of failing to contain a deadly Islamist insurgency, in an interview published Monday. Choguel Kokalla Maiga also confirmed that Mali’s ruling junta was unlikely to hold presidential and legislative elections as promised by February 27, 2022, despite warnings from the international community.

France has begun to withdraw troops from its northernmost Malian bases, part of plans to reorganise its forces deployed in the restive Sahel region under "Operation Barkhane". French army bases in Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu, in the north of the country, will be closed by the end of the year and handed over to the Malian army.

Paris is accused of abandoning Bamako in its fight against armed groups in the Sahel region.

Mali has summoned France’s ambassador to the country to register its “indignation” at French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent criticism of the country’s government, which is dominated by army figures. Tensions between France and its former colony Mali have been high since it emerged that the Sahel state is in talks with Russian mercenaries.

Officials from Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria have agreed to work together to reconstruct the Lake Chad Basin. The region has been a hotbed of insecurity due to attacks from Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram and its offshoots.

The Sahel is a crowded region from a geopolitical perspective. There are several different international military missions, and more than 7 countries are involved in development and security projects. At the same time the actions of many different kinds of non-state actors are undermining the region’s stability.