Terrorism

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The Nigeria Precedent: Why Degrading One Group Won’t Secure Mali✓

Since late December 2025, US Africa Command has been conducting airstrikes in northern Nigeria alongside the Nigerian military, targeting ISWAP and Boko Haram fighters. The campaign escalated in May 2026 into a joint offensive combining special forces raids with...

Sahel: How Gold and Jihadist Violence Are Redrawing the Guinea-Mali Border$

Along the border between Guinea and Mali, two forces are reshaping the landscape: armed jihadist groups pushing south from the Sahel, and a rapidly expanding gold economy that reaches from small riverside pits to industrial mines. Together, they are transforming...

Behind the Algeria-Mali Rapprochement: Security, Trade and a Sahel Reorder$

For 15 months, Algeria and Mali were locked in a diplomatic standoff that froze airspace, stalled ambassadorial contacts, and deepened mistrust over how to handle the war in the Sahel. In early July, Bamako and Algiers jointly moved to restore relations, with the...

North Africa and the Sahel on Alert Over Locust Upsurge$

An upsurge of desert locusts is taking shape in Northwest Africa, with Morocco currently facing the highest pressure while Algeria, Mauritania, and Sahel countries prepare for possible summer migrations. Recent reports from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization...

Mali’s Jihadist-Separatist Alliance Pushes Toward Anéfis as Fighting Enters Its Sixth Day$

A jihadist-separatist alliance has opened a new front in northern Mali, ambushing a Malian-Russian convoy near Anéfis and pushing to seize the strategic town, while Bamako continues to insist its forces retain control even as fighting has spread to Gao, Sévaré, Konna,...

Mali: Bamako Under Siege$

For years, Mali's conflict has been defined by territorial control, military offensives, and shifting alliances among jihadist groups, separatist movements, and government forces. Recent developments suggest that the conflict may be entering a different phase, a more...

The Nigeria Precedent: Why Degrading One Group Won’t Secure Mali✓

Seven months into an air campaign against ISWAP and Boko Haram, Nigeria’s broader insecurity crisis remains largely untouched. As Washington weighs a similar strike option against JNIM in Mali, the Nigeria case raises hard questions about what airpower can actually buy.

Mali’s Jihadist-Separatist Alliance Pushes Toward Anéfis as Fighting Enters Its Sixth Day$

Mali’s JNIM-FLA alliance has pushed into its sixth day of fighting for Anéfis after ambushing a Malian-Russian convoy near Tabrichat and downing a helicopter, as a second relief convoy heads toward the besieged garrison.

Mali: Bamako Under Siege$

Bamako is facing mounting pressure as jihadist group JNIM expands its campaign beyond military operations and increasingly targets the economic lifelines connecting Mali’s capital to the rest of West Africa. Attacks on highways, freight traffic, and commercial transport corridors have disrupted trade, affected regional commerce, and raised concerns about the government’s ability to maintain security and economic stability.

Mali: After Kidal, The War Comes to Bamako$

Mali’s military government lost Kidal to a joint FLA-JNIM offensive on April 26, 2026, after Russian Africa Corps personnel and Malian troops withdrew under rebel escort. The fall of the city, retaken by Bamako with Russian support in November 2023, exposes the limits of the junta’s sovereignty narrative and raises serious questions about the durability of Mali’s security model.

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