Mali: When Transition Becomes Confiscation, the Story of a National Tragedy
By Mohamed AG Ahmedou, journalist and civil society activist originally from Timbuktu and Taoudeni, now in exile.
What we are experiencing today in Mali goes beyond a simple drift toward authoritarianism. It is a national tragedy that combines military domination, complacency toward extremist forces, and abandonment of the most vulnerable populations. The junta, far from protecting Malians, actively contributes to their endangerment.
JNIM: A Parallel Power at the Foot of the State
The Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) is not limited to the northern regions (Timbuktu, Kidal, Gao, Macina, Dogon Country) today. It now extends across vast territories in southern Mali, with local representatives, notably among actors from the Bambara community, such as Bina Diarra, alias Abou Houzeyfa, and Souleymane Keita. This deployment reflects a territorial strategy no longer controlled by the Malian state.
Furthermore, the Islamic State has perpetrated a massacre against the nomadic Tuareg and Arab populations of the Ménaka region: more than 4,000 people were killed between 2018 and 2022. Since May 2022, the organization has established itself in the town of Anderboukane, a historic city larger than Kidal, as an operational base attacking the three de facto regimes of the central Sahel.
These dynamics show that Mali is no longer simply facing a local security challenge: it is a breakdown of national authority, to which the junta is responding not with protection, but with abandonment.
The junta as an active accomplice in the carnage
The autocratic military junta has at no time protected the Tuareg, Arab, Fulani, Dogon, or Soninke civilian populations.
On the contrary, it has recruited Russian mercenaries (Wagner, Africa Corps) to whom it has given permission to massacre these populations. It has also resorted to bombings using Turkish drones, Bayraktar, Akinci, presenting its civilian victims as “terrorists” in its official communiqués.
This strategy is not only inhumane, but ineffective: the colossal sums paid for mercenaries and drones have not slowed the expansion of JNIM.
On the contrary, the extension of terrorist control in the southern regions is intensifying—particularly along supply routes, especially for fuel and essential goods from coastal countries (Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, Ivory Coast). By cutting off these flows, JNIM is directly contributing to plunging the country into a severe economic crisis, and the junta is complicit.
A political lockdown serving chaos
The monopolization of political and media power serves this dramatic situation. By neutralizing the opposition, civil society, and the media, the junta ensures that no voice can denounce this tacit alliance between the regime and extremist forces.
It enforces this lockdown by suspending the activities (April 2024) and then dissolving (May-June 2025) of parties and associations, while the AEEM (Association of Students of Mali) has long been targeted.
In such a context, the “transition” is not being prolonged by chance: it is becoming a tool for consolidating power and ensuring impunity for the atrocities committed.
For an enlightened citizen resistance
We can no longer be satisfied with critical discourse: we need organized resistance, based on the truth of the victims and the testimony of exiles.
Make these crimes known internationally (courts, media, human rights institutions).
Unite the diaspora into coalitions that include victims from affected areas.
Demand an independent investigation into the actions of mercenaries and the bombings targeting civilians.
Revalue democratic proposals, outside the framework imposed by the junta, for a Mali that protects all its components.
Mali will not rebuild itself by sacrificing its people in the name of a “fight against terrorism,” which, in reality, only serves to maintain in power a complicit regime that derives its legitimacy only from the guns.
Shared by Azawad Support Group 30-09-25