Destruction and Despair - The Republic Of Mali Today

The Republic of Mali, the eight largest country in Africa, has, over the past years, been battered both by nature and by insurgencies. Attention across the globe remains focussed on the Russia-Ukraine war; the evolving situation in Syria after the overthrow of Syria’s Bashar Al Assad, and Israel’s onslaught against the Palestinians and the Lebanese.

It is therefore not surprising that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has called Mali-The Forgotten Crisis.

The country of 1,240,192 square kilometres has a population of 23.29 million people, with 47 percent under the age of fifteen. Its neighbours include Algeria in the North; Mauritania in the northwest; to the east Niger, to the south Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, and Guinea and Senegal on its western front. The country has 13 official languages, of which Bambara is the most commonly

Severe flooding from the overflowing Niger river across Mali, and unrelenting rain, had affected nearly 450,000 people, mostly women and children. The country's economy centres on agriculture and mining with its most prominent natural resources including gold (of which it is the third largest producer in Africa.

The Government declared a national disaster, and thousands of already vulnerable people were forced to move, losing their homes, livestock, fields and livelihoods. Coupled with the floods was the worsening security situation in northern and central regions which forced people to abandon their homes. As if their suffering was not enough the people of Mali have had to accept nearly 191,000 refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing violence in central Sahel-with the largest numbers having fled from Burkina Faso and Niger.

Entire communities have been deprived of life-saving assistance due to armed hostilities, explosive devices, blockades, and the destruction of transport and civilian infrastructure.

Last year 1.8 million people received humanitarian assistance in Mali, from donors, including the United States and the European Union which provided more than 60 percent of the funds raised. It is estimated that in 2025 6.4 million people or 28 percent of the population would require humanitarian assistance. Accordingly humanitarian assistance to the tune of For 2025 4.7 million of the most vulnerable people, including 78 per cent women and children would need assistance. Those living in Northern and central Mali, where conflict has caused displacement, require urgent help. Since Mali is heavily dependent on imports, border closures for security reasons have had a direct impact on food prices and its availability.

Mali has witnessed a number of Coup d’Etats. The latest, in 2020, was led by Colonel Assimi Goïta who headed the National Committee for the Salvation of the People. Banking on popular discontent over attacks by armed groups, Goita overthrew the democratically elected president ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. In 2021, in another coup, he took over power from Bah Ndaw, a Malian retired military officer and politician who served as the president of Mali between 25 September 2020 and 24 May 202.

Since then Goita has been functioning as the constitutionally declared interim president of Mali. Though elections were promised by the military rulers nothing has happened so far. Instead recently Goita appointed his Government’s spokesperson Abdoulaye Maiga as PrimeMinister after firing Choguel Maiga who had criticised the administration.

On the security front, the junta, since taking power, has been fighting both jihadist groups allied to Islamic State and al Qaeda. and a Tuareg-led rebellion in the north. The junta kicked out French and U.N. troops that had been involved in fighting Islamist insurgents for a decade. Instead, they took the support of Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries.

According to reports from analysts the government of Mali pays about $10 million a month for Wagner’s services. The mercenary group, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, has been responsible for the killing of 925 civilians in attacks in 2024. ACLED said the Wagner fighters attack convoys and kill men, women and children and loot the goods.

The mercenaries have adopted “dirty-war tactics according to Andrew Lebovich, a research fellow with the Clingendael Institute in the Netherlands. He said that Mali’s military had long been accused of human right violations but the ferocity of abuses had increased since Wagner entered the field.

People displaced by the fighting told the media that Wagner’s fighters assaulted women, massacred civilians and burned villages in Mali. The violence had led to an exodus from Mali particularly to Mauritania which was facing a refugee crisis.

In 2015 a peace agreement, known as the Algiers Accord between the government and rebels had been midwifed by the United Nations. The junta terminated the agreement in January 2024 stating that parties, including Algeria, had failed to abide by the terms of the agreement. Algeria was accused of "unfriendly acts".

The Malian authorities said that certain groups, formerly involved in the peace process, had transformed into "terrorist actors" with ties to Algeria. The collapse of the Algiers Accord triggered renewed fighting that killed dozens of Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner mercenaries.

The Mali government’s moves to decimate the opposition in the North had brought Algeria up front. Algeria had shot down what it called ‘an armed drone’ launched by Mali to locate the rebels because it had crossed into Algerian airspace. This led Prime Minister General Abdoulaye Maiga, leader of Mali’s military authorities, to accuse the Algerian authorities of sponsoring international terrorism”.

The Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a confederation created last year comprising Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, had recalled their ambassadors to Algeria. The three African nations accused Algeria of an “irresponsible act” that violated international law.

The AES was formed last year in the aftermath of several coups and following the exit of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger from the nearly 50-year-old regional bloc known as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The three countries had also had to face bloody attacks on civilians and control of territory by armed groups affiliated with Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

With the feud continuing, Algeria had closed its airspace to Mali.

The Tuaregs have been fighting since 2012 for an independent homeland to be called Azawad. The movement has been spearheaded by the Front for the Liberation of Azawad in a region where al Qaeda and Islamic State are also active. The reach of the different groups fighting the government became obvious when in September 2024 they killed around 70 people in the country’s capital Bamako and also hit an army training academy and the airport.

The attack was claimed by an Al Qaeda affiliate Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) a grouping that includes al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb,Ansar al-Dine, Macina Liberation Front, and al-Mourabitoune.

One other cause, in addition to the Tuareg quest for their own homeland, was most likely the junta engineered new constitution for Mali. In July 2023, the transition government adopted a new constitution, replacing the constitution that had been in effect since 1992. The new constitution defines the country as a secular state, prohibits discrimination based on religion, and provides for freedom of religion, including the freedom to not engage in any religion or religious practice, in conformity with the law.

Under the penal code, any act of discrimination based on religion or impeding the freedom of religious observance or worship is punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment or 10 years’ banishment It is not therefore surprising that al Qaeda’s affiliates and Islamic State are active in Mali

The nature of the violence was demonstrated in the first week of February 2025 when a convoy of 60 vehicles escorted by the Mali army came under massive attack by gunmen. Reports said people were killed. The Front for the Liberation of Azawad accused Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner Group mercenaries of intercepting two civilian vehicles bound for Algeria and executing at least 24 people among the passengers.

Officials said the victims included foreign nationals travelling to a gold mine in Intahaka, a major gold mining region. The Army claimed it was investigating the incident but, as Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan think tank, told the media it was unlikely that the army’s investigation into the incident would find fault in the actions of the soldiers or the Russian mercenaries.

Mali had also accused Ukraine of helping the rebels. In August 2024 Mali cut off diplomatic ties with Ukraine. The immediate cause was said to be comments by a Russian military spokesperson that Ukraine was guilty of involvement in the attack by armed terrorist groups.

Interestingly Senegal's Foreign Minister was said to have summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Yurii Pyvovarov objecting to a video he said the Ukrainian embassy had posted on its Facebook page in which Pyvovarov expressed unqualified support for the terrorist attack in Mali.

The Mali establishment, while breaking off relations with Ukraine, said that Ukraine had violated the sovereignty of Mali, and its actions were not just interference but aggression and support for international terrorism."

It is highly unlikely that the situation in Mali will improve in the short term. The country continues to face challenges such as rapid population growth, climate change, and extreme poverty. It is heavily dependent on agriculture, and as economic activity is concentrated around the Niger River the flooding has caused a major crisis. Local holidays and seasonal events in certain areas are marked by violent crime, armed robbery and kidnappings.

What is needed is a global realisation that humanitarian disasters-whether they be in Africa, the Middle East or elsewhere-need immediate action including funding, health care, negotiations to end violence, and prevent whole populations facing death from weapons, disease and deliberate policies of their own and other governments.

Dictators, particularly of the military ilk, are often incapable of reasoned thinking that would help assuage the difficulties faced by their people. Most characters who kindle and re-kindle violence answer only to direct action. It is necessary for world powers who talk of freedom and human rights, to stop all assistance to rulers who hold on to power while sacrificing their men, women, and children. There is a need for courage and decency and an end to nations-rich and poor-thinking only of their own interests.