A petrol station in Bamako. The crisis has been exacerbated as armed groups block key routes used by fuel tankers, disrupting supply lines to the capital. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAn Islamic state<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo far nobody is demonstrating against the government because I think they know if they brought down this government, then the next one would be an Islamist one so it can also kind of strengthen the regime\u2019s resolve a bit,\u201d said Laessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In June 2020, civil society, religious groups and opposition parties formed a protest coalition known as the June 5 Movement \u2013 Rally of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP) that spearheaded large-scale protests against the democratically elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Ke\u00efta, citing corruption and worsening security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among the M5-RFP\u2019s most visible figures was Mahmoud Dicko, an influential and controversial imam who first came to national spotlight with his role in the 1991 coup of the then president Moussa Traor\u00e9. The cleric\u2019s mobilisation played a key role in forcing the collapse of the Ke\u00efta government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During one meeting where the regional bloc Ecowas, or the Economic Community of West African States, mediated between the state and M5-RFP, Ke\u00efta\u00a0dropped a shocker. \u201cI was part of the meeting when he told Ecowas leaders that Imam Dicko wants Mali to become an Islamic country under sharia law,\u201d the former minister said. \u201cWhen he said that, hell broke loose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within two months, soldiers led by Assimi Go\u00efta, a young captain, took over government, replacing parliament with the National Transitional Council (NTC). A second coup within a year led to Go\u00efta being sworn in as head of state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the junta\u2019s promises have mostly been unfulfilled. The NTC, headed by Col Malick Diaw, scheduled elections for February 2022 but has repeatedly postponed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the meantime the death toll from the insurgency has risen sharply; the total since 2012 has exceeded 17,700, with more than two-thirds of that occurring after 2020, according to\u00a0data\u00a0from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. JNIM, whose finances have been boosted by several high-profile ransoms paid for abductees, including Emirati citizens, is expanding operations to Benin and Nigeria in coastal west Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Human rights groups have also alleged that Mali\u2019s operations with Wagner mercenaries and pro-junta militias comprising hunter militias are rife with abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
End of the road?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The junta\u2019s isolation seems nearly complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It signed a pact for military assistance with the regimes of Burkina Faso and Niger but the effect of that remains to be seen. Having broken off relations with Ecowas, Mali is also unable to draw on its military resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years, some foreign diplomatic missions have scaled back their presence just as the junta expelled staff from other groups amid deteriorating relations with the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consequently, there have been reports of increasing frustration within the ranks of the army, suggesting internal tensions among the five colonels who staged the first coup. Two of them, Diaw and the defence minister, Sadio Camara, are being mooted as potential successors who could replace Go\u00efta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Dicko, who has been in exile in Algeria since 2023 after falling out with the government and\u00a0losing his diplomatic passport, is expected to return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome JNIM people are asking for Dicko to come back so they can negotiate with him instead of the Malian government,\u201d the insider said. \u201cThis is their end goal, to turn Mali into an Islamic state and they\u2019re very close.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
source:theguardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Armed groups of JNIM fighters have blocked key routes used by fuel tankers, disrupting supply lines to the capital Bamako and other regions across\u00a0Mali. The al-Qaida-linked jihadist group\u00a0Jama\u2019at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin\u00a0(JNIM) is gradually converging on Mali\u2019s capital, Bamako, with increasing attacks in recent weeks, including on army-backed convoys. Should the city fall, the west […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4342,1648,4899,9465,8092,8217,11394,3347,10870,12661,960,11583,11555,9331,9233,4024,1384,6731,8440,7396,7234,10418,10391,12246,5927,9478,1537,5196,174,5800,5934,9127,6496,5575,6569,5491,66,2264,1444,10840,5661,8601,5699,13157,1392,5459,12382,12381,7283,10388,9515,10342,5317,6465,9833,9477,5572,12287,1390,434,7980,1198,2604,10381,8185,3805,10390,5561,5333,1649,8810,5655,1749,5618,3349,5319,11581,5909,6348,1101,9318,10943,5981,594,5140],"class_list":["post-47343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-afghanistan","tag-africa","tag-african","tag-al-qaida","tag-algeria","tag-army","tag-attacks","tag-australia","tag-aviation","tag-benin","tag-burkina-faso","tag-capital","tag-citizens","tag-city","tag-collapse","tag-common","tag-corruption","tag-coup","tag-crisis","tag-data","tag-death","tag-death-toll","tag-declined","tag-diplomatic","tag-drivers","tag-dropped","tag-economic-community-of-west-african-states","tag-economy","tag-ecowas","tag-electricity","tag-expelled","tag-february","tag-food","tag-france","tag-fuel","tag-gas","tag-germany","tag-government","tag-hell","tag-human-rights","tag-human-rights-watch","tag-independence","tag-islam","tag-islamic","tag-italy","tag-ivory-coast","tag-jamaat-nusrat-ul-islam-wa-al-muslimin-jnim","tag-jnim","tag-junta","tag-kidnapped","tag-killed","tag-law","tag-mali","tag-mauritania","tag-meeting","tag-mercenaries","tag-military","tag-movement","tag-niger","tag-nigeria","tag-overthrow","tag-parliament","tag-passport","tag-petrol","tag-petrol-station","tag-president","tag-prices","tag-protest","tag-rally","tag-sahel","tag-schools","tag-security","tag-senegal","tag-soldiers","tag-syria","tag-taliban","tag-trial","tag-ul","tag-us","tag-wa","tag-wagner","tag-watch","tag-west-africa","tag-who","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47346,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47343\/revisions\/47346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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