Mali

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.

Violence against children in the central Sahel region of Africa surged dramatically in the last quarter of 2023, skyrocketing by 70 per cent over the previous three months, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Wednesday. The agency revealed that in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, cases of recruitment and use of children in armed groups along with killings and maiming increased by more than 130 per cent between the two time periods.

Le Burkina Faso, le Mali et le Niger ont « finalisé » à Niamey un projet de texte créant la Confédération de l’Alliance des États du Sahel (AES), que les dirigeants de ces trois régimes militaires devraient adopter ces « prochaines semaines ».

[…] The European Union has decided not to discuss the extension the mandate of EUTM Mali mission with the Malian Authorities. On 18 May, EUTM Mali will redeploy to Europe.