Mali

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. 

[…] This report looks at three case studies: EUPOL Afghanistan (2007–2016), EUCAP Sahel Mali (2014–) and EUCAP Sahel Niger (2012–2024). All three have engaged in civilian SSR activities amid ongoing armed conflict, and operated in broader national and international counterinsurgency contexts. Each case study reflects on the key research question: ‘What contributions have EU civilian CSDP missions involved in SSR made to durable peace?’

Participants in Mali's national dialogue on Friday recommended extending the military-led transition to democracy by three years and allowing junta leader Assimi Goita to stand in the eventual election.

The representative of Mali called for the necessary resources to ensure the stabilization mission in his country can liquidate its operations on schedule by year’s end, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today examined the proposed 2024/25 budgets for that mission as well as two other peacekeeping operations and their logistics and support entities.