Coordinated Armed Attacks Strike Multiple Cities Across Mali

Armed groups including the jihadist organization Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and Tuareg Azawad Liberation Front launched coordinated attacks on military positions across Mali on Saturday, targeting the capital Bamako and northern cities Kidal and Gao in what analysts describe as the largest jihadist assault in years. The attacks forced flight cancellations at Bamako's international airport and prompted the US Embassy to issue shelter-in-place warnings as explosions and gunfire erupted near the Kati military base. The offensive represents a major challenge to Mali's military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who seized power in 2020 promising to restore security but has seen large parts of northern and eastern Mali remain outside government control despite replacing UN peacekeepers and French forces with Russian mercenaries. Mali recently joined Niger and Burkina Faso in leaving the West African bloc Ecowas to form the Alliance of Sahel States, a union of three military-led governments facing similar jihadist insurgencies.

Military junta's failure to deliver security since 2020 coup

• ▪Gen Assimi Goïta first seized power in Mali in a coup in 2020

Shift from Western to Russian security partnerships

• ▪The UN peacekeeping mission was deployed in Mali in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency
• ▪French forces were deployed in Mali in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency
• ▪The Mali military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle insecurity