Crisis in Mali (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Aug. 15, 2023 |
| Report Number |
IF10116 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Alexis Arieff |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
Mali faces intertwined security and governance challenges.
The government signed a peace accord with northern
separatists in 2015, but key provisions remain unimplemented.
Signatory armed groups continue to assert
territorial control in much of the vast desert north. At the
same time, an Islamist insurgency has spread from the north
into previously stable central Mali, where jihadists have
leveraged interethnic grievances and local resentment
toward state actors. The capital, Bamako, has also been
targeted in terrorist attacks. Rebel, terrorist, communal, and
criminal networks are fluid and shifting, posing an obstacle
to conflict resolution. Some Malians have proposed peace
talks with jihadist groups, but the government and Western
donors have rejected the idea.
These challenges have severely undermined already
daunting development prospects in Mali, one of the world’s
poorest countries. Recurrent droughts, poor infrastructure,
high population growth, and land degradation underlie
endemic food insecurity. Security threats and limited donor
funding have further constrained humanitarian relief. As of
mid-2018, more than 75,000 Malians were internally
displaced and over 140,000 were refugees in neighboring
states—more refugees than at the height of Mali’s northsouth
war in 2012-2013. Insecurity and a lack of basic
services in northern Mali have impeded refugee returns.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Kéïta won reelection to a
second five-year term in August 2018, but the contest was
marred by low turnout and procedural irregularities.
Security incidents disrupted or prevented voting in
hundreds of polling stations, many of them in central Mali.
Kéïta’s margin of victory and the number of votes cast for
him were lower than his inaugural election in 2013, which
restored civilian government after a military coup. These
trends may suggest declining confidence in the electoral
process and political elites. Corruption scandals have
undermined citizens’ faith in Kéïta’s leadership, as has his
government’s inability to improve living standards, bolster
security, or reassert full control of the north.
Foreign troops have deployed to Mali in an effort to bolster
stability and counter terrorism. Over 1,000 French troops
are in Mali under an enduring regional counterterrorism
operation, Barkhane. The U.N. Multidimensional Integrated
Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is tasked with
protecting civilians and supporting the peace process. The
European Union (EU) has a multi-year program to train and
restructure the Malian military. In 2017, the G5 Sahel—a
regional grouping of Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina
Faso, and Chad—launched a “joint force” to counter
security threats in border regions. The initiative has
received donor backing but has conducted few operations to
date. A large terrorist attack targeting the G5 operational
headquarters in central Mali in June 2018 highlighted
ongoing challenges for the force.
