Mali is experiencing a severe deterioration in security as jihadist armed groups escalate offensive operations across the country, raising fears about the stability of the Sahel nation's central government. The intensifying conflict threatens to further destabilise a country already weakened by successive military coups and the withdrawal of international peacekeeping forces. The crisis underscores the broader fragility of the Sahel region (the semi-arid belt stretching across Africa south of the Sahara), where militant groups have expanded their reach despite years of counterterrorism efforts.
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Friday, 29 May 2026
Mali faces deepening crisis as armed groups intensify offensive operations[Updated]
Wednesday, 6 May 2026, 07:14 · 1 min read
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JNIM has claimed responsibility for the attacks on Korikori and Gomossogou, stating they were carried out in retaliation for acts committed by the Dan Nan Ambassagou militia — a self-defence group made up mainly of traditional ethnic Dogon hunters that has refused a junta order to disband. A security source told AFP that while the victims were mostly militiamen, teenagers and children were also among the dead. Villages were reported looted and some properties set on fire during the assaults.
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Jihadist fighters attacked two villages in central Mali overnight into Thursday, killing around 50 people, including civilians, continuing a wave of violence that has not abated since the late April offensive. That coordinated assault involved JNIM suicide bombings targeting senior junta officials at their residences near Bamako, simultaneously with the Tuareg FLA rebels' push against Russian Africa Corps positions in the north — two fronts separated by more than a thousand kilometres. FLA fighters, photographed in Kidal on May 6 alongside a damaged Mi-24 helicopter, now control several locations across northern Mali following the offensive. The tactical alliance between the Tuareg separatists, who have sought an independent state since the end of the colonial era, and jihadist groups remains fragile despite their recent coordination.
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Al-Qaeda-linked fighters from the JNIM have burned food trucks and tightened a blockade around Bamako in place since April 30, severing supply routes and worsening food shortages across already vulnerable areas. In the northern Kidal region, JNIM and Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) independence fighters seized the city on April 25, prompting Malian forces and their Russian Africa Corps partners to abandon the Tessalit base without fighting on May 1; both sides are now signalling imminent renewed clashes. Amid the mounting pressure, junta leader General Assimi Goïta has overhauled military leadership, appointing Elisée Jean Dao — promoted from brigadier general to major general — as the new chief of the general staff, while his predecessor Oumar Diarra has been moved to a ministerial role within the defence portfolio.
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