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1 1 (December 17, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goverss0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Con rs~onI infun ing I le Na \ ~s ar ifS )ale c. 191 Updated December 17, 2024 Mali 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 Goita 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 Goita 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. Goita 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. FiFure I. Mali at a Glance Source: CRS graphic, based on Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED); figures from CIA World Factbook and IMF. Historical Background Mali has been mired in crises for over a decade. In 2012, soldiers ousted Mali's elected president as members of the minority ethnic Tuareg community renewed a separatist rebellion in the north. The rebels, bolstered by Libyan arms and by fighters with ties to Algerian-origin Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), then declared an independent state of Azawad in the north. By mid-2012, AQIM and two allied Islamist groups had outmaneuvered the separatists to assert control over much of the area. France deployed its military in early 2013, at Bamako's request, and rapidly ousted Islamist groups from northern towns. The UN Security Council then established a peacekeeping operation, MINUSMA, to help stabilize the country. Veteran politician Ibrahim Boubacar K&ita was elected president later that year, and donors normalized ties with Bamako. French forces transitioned in 2014 into a regional counterterrorism mission backed by U.S. support. Under international pressure to reach a peace deal with Tuareg-led groups, the government signed an accord in 2015 with two northern armed group coalitions. Mediated by Algeria with international backing, the accord aimed to demobilize rebel fighters, address Tuareg grievances, reestablish state authority in the north, and isolate designated terrorist groups, which were not party to the talks. Implementation lagged as Bamako slow-walked reforms, while signatory groups maintained parallel governance structures. Armed groups proliferated and Islamist insurgents expanded into central Mali. President K&ita was reelected in 2018, but opposition mounted over corruption, allegedly fraudulent legislative

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