Mali

In Mali, a coalition of political parties has rejected the military government's plan for a five-year transition before elections. Mali has been under pressure from West African governments to hold elections since a May military coup d’etat, the second in less than a year.

[…] I am deeply concerned about the continued deterioration of the security situation in Mali, characterized by increasing attacks targeting civilians and peacekeepers in the centre and north of the country and the expansion of the terrorist threat in the south.

West African regional bloc ECOWAS hopes Mali's transitional authorities will finalise a date for elections before the end of this year, its envoy, former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, said on Tuesday after meeting interim leaders.

Mali's foreign affairs ministry said that Chad planned to deploy 1,000 additional soldiers to Mali to reinforce its troops battling insurgents there, as France scales back its military presence in Africa's Sahel Region.

Two days after the European Union joined the United States in imposing sanctions on the Wagner Group, Blinken voiced disappointment that Mali has rejected an offer of additional UN peacekeepers and is instead looking to the private paramilitary unit.

More than eight years after then French president, François Hollande, formally declared the start of France's military intervention to root out jihadist insurgents from northern Mali, French troops were handing over a key base in Timbuktu to the Malian military.

The head of Mali’s military-dominated government on Sunday promised West Africa’s regional bloc that he would provide it with an election timetable by January 2022. The head of Mali’s transitional government, Colonel Assimi Goita, justified postponing the election and holding a national consultation which he said would be “indispensable” for peace and stability.

Authorities in Mali seem to be considering negotiations with Jamaat Nusratul Islam wal-Muslimin, the country’s largest Islamist insurgency. Pursuing talks will be a tall order, given the stakes and the group’s al-Qaeda connection. Both the government and the militants should begin with incremental steps.

On Wednesday morning, seven UN peacekeepers from Togo died and three others were seriously injured when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the Bandiagara region in central Mali. 

French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly granted an interview to FRANCE 24 and RFI in Dakar, Senegal. Parly slammed a "disinformation campaign" aimed at creating "anti-French discourse" in Africa's Sahel region, as France reorganises its military presence there. The minister said she did not believe Russian Wagner Group mercenaries were in the Malian capital Bamako, but added that "that does not mean the current Malian authorities are not planning to bring them there". The arrival of Russian mercenaries in Mali would be "simply unacceptable", she said.