Oct 2, 2020 | Mali, Menas Associates, Sahara
Last month a new transitional government — albeit it one in which the junta which overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (IBK) on 18 August retains the most powerful portfolios — took office in Mali. International and regional sanctions were therefore lifted and...
Aug 24, 2020 | Mali, Menas Associates, Sahara
Mali’s latest coup d’état, on Tuesday 18 August, has been almost universally condemned internationally and especially by the African Union (AU), Mali’s neighbouring Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the UN and France. By contrast, most Malians have...
Aug 18, 2020 | Mali, Menas Associates, Sahara
On 23 July in our Sahara Focus regular monthly report we predicted that Mali’s political crisis will have serious implications for the whole region. Following the regime’s lethal gun attack on the 11 July peaceful demonstration, the way in which Mali’s political...
Jun 26, 2020 | Mali, Menas Associates, Sahara
Mali is facing an unprecedented — and some might say long overdue — political crisis. June witnessed two massive demonstrations in Bamako, numbering tens of thousands of people, demanding the resignation of 75-year-old President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK). Exactly...
Oct 31, 2019 | Mali, Menas Associates, Sahara
The root of the failure of France’s Operation Barkhane in the Sahel is Paris’ inability to understand not just the political stakes but also the motivations that push hundreds of young people to join jihadism. Since France sent its troops to Mali in January 2013,...
Sep 19, 2019 | Mali, Menas Associates, Sahara
Mahmoud Dicko: from religous leader to politician? Mahmoud Dicko — who stood down in April after 11 years as president of the High Islamic Council of Mali — appears to be a resurgent force in Malian politics. Back in 2010, he was preaching against the high levels of...
