Mali (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Dec. 17, 2024 |
| Report Number |
IF10116 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Alexis Arieff |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
Once seen as a rising democracy in Africa, Mali has
become an epicenter of conflicts and instability since 2011.
A military junta seized power in 2020, Mali’s second coup
in nine years. Coups in Burkina Faso and Niger followed.
Insurgents affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State
have expanded their reach, and a northern separatist conflict
is resurgent. The military regime has curtailed ties with
former colonial power France, forced out UN peacekeepers,
and drawn closer to Russia. A top African gold producer,
Mali has detained Western mining officials in an apparent
bid to assert more state control over the mining sector and
revenues. Reflecting broader shifts in the Sahel, events in
Mali have challenged U.S. efforts to encourage stability,
contain terrorist threats, address development and
humanitarian needs, and deter Russian influence.
Assimi Goïta has served as Transition President since 2021,
when the National Committee for the Salvation of the
People (CNSP) junta ousted civilian transitional leaders. A
new constitution, adopted by referendum in 2023,
concentrates power in the presidency and could pave the
way for Goïta to run for election. Authorities postponed
elections indefinitely in early 2024, however. In late 2024,
the CNSP replaced the civilian prime minister with a
military officer after the former criticized election delays.
Goïta and other CNSP figures were also promoted from the
rank of colonel to general. Critics and opposition actors
have faced arrest, intimidation, and media restrictions.
Authorities temporarily “suspended” all political party
activities in mid-2024 and have banned several local and
France-based broadcasters.
The CNSP has reshaped Mali’s foreign and defense
relations. Russian security personnel first entered the
country in 2021 in support of Malian counterinsurgency
operations. In 2022, France withdrew its 2,400 troops from
Mali amid rising bilateral tensions, ending a U.S.-backed
counterterrorism mission. In 2023, at the junta’s request,
the UN Security Council ended a decade-long UN
peacekeeping mission in Mali, which had about 15,000
troops and police. The CNSP and its counterparts in Mali
and Burkina Faso later formed a new alliance and moved to
leave the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS), which had pressured coup leaders to cede
power. The rift has disrupted regional security initiatives
that once garnered donor backing.
The exit of French and UN troops left a security vacuum
that state forces and insurgents have jockeyed to fill. The
Mali-based Union for Supporting Islam and Muslims (aka
JNIM), an Al Qaeda-affiliated coalition, has moved closer
to the capital, Bamako, where it carried out a multipronged
attack in September 2024 that temporarily shuttered the
international airport. Northern separatist factions have
sought to regroup in the face of a Malian-Russian offensive.
Armed groups, state security forces, and Russian personnel
have allegedly committed atrocities, including massacres.
