What's behind the latest fighting in Mali?

“What's behind the latest fighting in Mali? Submitted by Daniel Tester on Fri, 05/15/2026 - 16:37 An alliance of Tuareg separatists and an al-Qaeda-affiliated coalition is fighting a military junta backed by Russian mercenaries and with some support from Turkey A soldier from the National Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLA) waves an FLA flag in the streets of Kidal on 9 May 2026 (AFP). On Fighting has continued across Mali since Tuareg separatists and an al-Qaeda-affiliated coalition launched a surprise attack on the country’s military junta last month. Fighters from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) groups have seized towns and army bases , blockaded the capital city, Bamako, and killed the country’s defence minister, Sadio Camara , in the most serious challenge to the the government since it came to power in 2020. Both groups are based in Mali’s remote regions, which stretch over 1,000km north of Bamako, and which successive governments have struggled to control. Russian Africa Corps mercenaries are also embroiled in the country as part of the Kremlin's wider push to assert its influence across the region. Mali is vast, a landlocked former French colony that gained formal independence in 1960 and stretches from the Sahara desert in the north to the semi-arid Sahel and humid savannah in the south. A rebellion by Tuareg separatists in the country’s north triggered the outbreak of a wider civil war in Mali in 2012 that has flared intermittently since then. The country has been ruled by a military junta since a coup against the civilian government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020. Assimi Goita, the special forces officer who led the coup, became vice-president, installing former defence minister Bah Ndaw as civilian president. Goita seized full control in another coup in May 2021, arresting Ndaw and prime minister Moctar Ouane and assuming the presidency. Since then, Goita has imposed authoritarian rule, cracking down on rebel groups and deepening ties with Moscow. The Africa Corps has been deployed across the country since December 2024: many of its personnel were previously involved with the Wagner Group, which announced last year that it was leaving Mali. French troops, stationed in Mali since 2014, pulled out in 2022 amid deteriorating relations between Paris and Bamako. The decade-long UN peacekeeping mission left in May 2023 after its director was expelled . But much of the country is contested, with separatist movements controlling parts of Mali’s outer regions. What's happening in Mali now? Rebels from the FLA and JNIM coalitions attacked military outposts throughout the country on 25 April. These occured as far south as Bamako and Kati, a key barracks town near the capital where Camara was killed in a suicide bombing on his residence on 26 April. Goita appointed himself Mali’s defence minister three days later. JNIM announced on 28 April that it would besiege Bamako, with video showing fighters torching food trucks bound for the capital on 6 May. Meanwhile, in Mali’s north, rebels captured key towns such as Kidal , forcing Africa Corps mercenaries to withdraw from the town on 26 April. The town now faces aerial bombardment from the Malian government. Goita stated that Mali’s security situation was “under control” on 29 April. But attacks have continued since: on 6 May, JNIM fighters stormed Kenieroba Central Prison near Bamako, which houses over 2,500 prisoners. Across the country, hundreds are feared dead, while others accused of collaborating with rebel groups are reported to have been forcibly disappeared by government forces. What is Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam Wal-Muslimin (JNIM)? Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), usually translated as the "Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims," is a Salafist militant group with ties to al-Qaeda that is active in the Sahel. It formed after a 2017 merger of four religious conservative militant groups fighting insurgencies in Mali and the wider Sahel: Ansar Dine, al-Mourabitoune, Katiba Macina and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Today, it is the strongest militant group in the region, with an estimated 6,000 fighters and control over parts of eastern Mali, as well as parts of neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso. It has also claimed responsibility for attacks as far away as Benin, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire. A soldier from the National Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLA) inside a damaged building in Kidal, on 9 May 2026 (AFP) It says it aims to expel Western influences from the region and to impose Sharia. It is sanctioned by the UN Security Council and is considered a terrorist group by many governments, including those of Mali and the US . Following the exit of French and UN troops, it has held parts of the country, including the ancient trading city of Timbuktu, under partial blockades since 2023. JNIM membership spans several ethnic groups. Its leader, former Ansar Dine emir Iyad Ag Ghali, is Tuareg, while his deputy, Amadou Koufa, is Fulani. It also has Arab members drawn from across the region. The group has used diverse tactics, including armed confrontations with the army, attacks on civilians and a fuel blockade that has paralysed much of the country since November 2025. What is the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA)? The FLA is a militant separatist group seeking independence for a region in northern Mali that it calls Azawad. In contrast to JNIM, its goals are principally nationalist. Most of the FLA’s leadership and supporters are Tuareg, a Berber ethnic group who inhabit lands across several countries in the Sahara. They are the ethnic majority in the Kidal and Menaka administrative regions of northern Mali and form around 10 percent of the country’s overall population. Led by Tuareg commander and politician Alghabass Ag Intalla, the FLA emerged from a 2024 merger between the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a group of Tuareg fighters who had previously fought for Muammar Gaddafi during the Libyan civil war, and smaller Tuareg groups. Tuaregs have demanded autonomy for decades, staging frequent uprisings since Mali gained independence from French colonial rule in 1960. The Tuareg are a nomdic people who live across the Sahara and Sahel, including Mali, Algeria, Niger and parts of Libya. In 2012, the MNLA led an insurgency against the government that ignited the broader civil war. Working with the religious conservative Tuareg group Ansar Dine, the MNLA captured much of the north of the country and declared an unrecognised state, the Independent State of Azawad, in April 2012. The MNLA lost control of much of this land in June 2012 amid infighting with Ansar Dine and UN and French military interventions that eventually reasserted tenuous control under the Malian government. Peace settlements were negotiated in 2013 and 2015 between the government and the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), an umbrella political coalition of Tuareg nationalist groups. But these were largely unimplemented by the government, which officially terminated the deal in 2024 to renew its counteroffensive on rebel outposts. Why are the JNIM and FLA working together? Analysts have previously told Middle East Eye that the alliance between the JNIM and the FLA is borne from their mutual enemy: the Malian government. Jibrin Issa, a writer and political analyst specialising in Sahel affairs, told MEE that the united front represents “a marriage of necessity from Azawad’s [FLA’s] perspective, and an operational arrangement from al-Qaeda’s [JNIM’s] perspective. “The aim is to distract the Malian army in the north while jihadist groups push southwards to encircle the capital and open multiple pressure fronts simultaneously,” he said. Hamdi Jowara, a Malian journalist based in Paris, described the relationship as “a temporary alignment driven by the presence of a strong common enemy that neither side can defeat alone”. He added that coordination “is reflected more in a division of roles across fronts than in any formal organisational integration”. In 2012, after a period of collaboration, the two coalitions’ predecessors, the MNLA and Ansar Dine clashed after the Ansar Dine imposed strict Sharia law on the regions under their shared control. Why is Russia involved in Mali? Russia is involved in Mali through Africa Corps, a state-run paramilitary organisation that Moscow has used to project its influence over the region. Many of its personnel previously served with the Wagner Group, a paramilitary that was run by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin until his mutiny and later death in 2023. Wagner Group paramilitaries were first deployed to Mali in 2021 in coordination with the Goita government, while Africa Corps fighters officially entered in December 2024. Their force currently numbers an estimated 2,000 troops. Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Mali Assimi Goita in talks in Moscow, Russia on 23 June 2025 (AFP) Since then, they have offered military support to the government in clashes with militant groups in Mali’s north following the ejection of French and UN intervention forces. But like the army, the corps has been accused of human rights abuses, including executions of civilians. Africa Corps is also deployed elsewhere in the region, backing authoritarian governments in Burkina Faso and Niger. In the Central African Republic, the transition from Wagner Group forces to Africa Corps forces has long been stalled , despite pressure from Moscow. Which other countries are involved in Mali? Military coups in neighbouring Burkina Faso ( 2022 ) and Niger ( 2023 ) followed those in Mali. The three states subsequently withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) in January 2024. Instead they formed their own regional bloc, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), signing a confederation treaty in July 2024. The governments are unified in their opposition to French and Western influence in the Sahel, and in December 2025 inaugurated the AES Unified Force , a combined army numbering 5,000 troops intended to counter transnational groups such as JNIM. In a joint statement on 27 April, the alliance condemned the JNIM-FLA attacks as a “monstrous plot backed by the enemies of the liberation of the Sahel". Meanwhile, Turkey has tightened relations with Mali’s junta as part of a region-wide push across the Sahel . It has supplied drones to the juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, as well personal security to Goita via the Turkish private military firm Sadat . Ukraine has previously sought to counter the influence of Russia in Mali. In July 2024, Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, said that Ukraine had aided Tuareg rebels in a battle against Africa Corps troops aligned with Mali’s government. The statement prompted Mali to sever diplomatic relations with Ukraine in August 2024. It is unclear whether Ukraine still has an ongoing military or intelligence role in Mali. Algeria , which has long served as a mediator in the Sahel, is reported to have helped negotiate last month’s exit of Africa Corps troops from parts of northern Mali with Russia, with which it has longstanding ties. What happens now? Mali’s military junta said on 29 April it would stage a crackdown, with Goita stating that the military would “neutralise” the rebel coalitions. But the rebel groups have said they intend to seize further land. FLA spokesperson Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane told the BBC on 28 April that it wanted to take control of Gao, a major city in Mali’s east. Ramadane added that the FLA also sought control of Timbuktu, which he said “will be easy to take over once we fully control Gao and Kidal." Sahel Explainers Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:29 Update Date Override 0

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