31 March, 2022 | Sahara, Sahel
Much of the news from the Sahel is coloured by developments in Russia’s war against Ukraine and the impact on the region. The two news items that have been most coloured by Russia’s invasion are: the presence of the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group mercenaries in Mali; and...
29 November, 2021 | Menas Associates, Sahara, Sahel
If Mali does go ahead with its deal with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group to supply Russian mercenaries, it will come at a high, and possibly unaffordable, financial, and military price. Financially, the country is not only likely to be subjected to widespread...
30 August, 2021 | Menas Associates, Sahara, Sahel
Unlike the Taliban, the Sahel’s extremist groups — notably Iyad ag Ghali’s Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the État islamique dans le Grand Sahara (EIGS) — are not a cohesive force. Nor are the Boko Haram groups in the Lake Chad basin region of Nigeria,...
26 July, 2021 | Menas Associates, Niger, Sahara, Sahel
The most immediate change we are seeing in the Sahel is a military and political shift in the centre of gravity from Mali to Niger with the latter’s new President, Mohamed Bazoum, beginning to emerge as the Sahel’s new strongman. With Chad’s Idriss Déby now dead, and...
29 December, 2020 | Menas Associates, Sahara, Sahel
On 2 January another two French soldiers were killed in Mali, after three were killed in late December at Hombori in the central Mopti Region when their vehicle detonated an improvised explosive device (IED). This latest loss of French military lives will intensify...
23 July, 2020 | Menas Associates, Sahara, Sahel
Following the regime’s lethal gun attack on the 11 July peaceful demonstration, the way in which Mali’s political crisis develops will have serious implications for the entire West African and Sahelian regions. If President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK) is forced to...
