Mali

Germany's parliament on Friday extended its mandate for the country's troops deployed with the European Union Training Mission in Mali (EUTM). A sizeable majority of 437 MPs supported the extension of the Bundeswehr's directive until May 2021.

Uncertainty remains over many aspects of the AU’s planned troop deployment to fight terrorism in the region.

The so-called ‘Malian crisis’ has now become a regionally multidimensional crisis. Economic, social, political and human dimensions are fed by structural and continuing dissatisfaction of marginalized and vulnerable populations. The fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya (2011) and the subsequent destabilization of Mali (2012) have had protracted consequences throughout the Sahel region which was already affected by structural factors of fragility such as climatic, economic and development challenges.

Three UN peacekeepers from Chad were killed in northern Mali on Sunday when their convoy hit a roadside bomb near Aguelhok, in the restive Kidal region. The improvised device also seriously injured four others who are now receiving medical care, the UN Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said in a statement.

[…] The reporting period was marked by a deterioration in the security situation in Mali and the Sahel region, characterized by a rise in increasingly complex terrorist attacks, primarily targeting the armed and security forces. Higher rates of civiliancasualties were also recorded. According to preliminary reports, terrorist groups are taking advantage of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic to intensify their attacks and to challenge State authority throughout the subregion, especially in the Liptako-Gourma triangle.

Security forces in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have been accused of committing a rising toll of extrajudicial killings in their battle against jihadist groups in the Sahelian region. In Mali, soldiers allegedly conducted 101 executions, 32 forced disappearances, and 32 cases of torture in the first three months of the year, the UN Mission in Mali reported – an overall increase compared to the end of 2019. Most of the violations occurred in heavily contested central Mali.

The European Union has approved another EUR194 million [USD211.4 million] in security, defence, and development aid for the five G5 Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger). Announced after a 28 April teleconference of EU and G5 leaders in Brussels, the money will be used to combat the region’s deteriorating security and social conditions.

In this conversation with Liam Walpole from the Oxford Research Group, DIIS researchers Peter Albrecht and Signe Cold-Ravnkilde talk about the many challenges regarding protection of civilians in the Sahel and the broader West African region.

An upsurge in military action against armed groups in West Africa’s vast Sahel and Lake Chad regions has prompted the United Nations refugee agency to call on all warring parties to protect people caught up in the violence.