Mali junta more vulnerable than ever after weekend attacks

Mali now hangs by a very thin thread. On Sunday, April 26, the day after a series of attacks of an unprecedented scale and coordination on several cities across the country, the ruling junta had yet to recover from the extraordinary blow dealt by the jihadists of Nusrat al-Islam (JNIM, affiliated with Al-Qaeda), allied with the Tuareg pro-independence Azawad Liberation Front (ALF).

According to several witnesses contacted by Le Monde , gunfire continued to erupt on Sunday, particularly in Kati, the garrison town on the outskirts of Bamako where the ruling generals reside. Attackers from JNIM are still "holed up in buildings under construction and on the hills surrounding the city," explained a Malian soldier on the ground. In Sénou, where Bamako's international airport is located – and which was also targeted by the JNIM-ALF coalition on Saturday – "everyone is staying indoors. No one dares to go outside because the terrorists are still roaming, even though there has not been any fighting today," noted a local resident.

In a statement released on Saturday, JNIM, led by Iyad Ag Ghali, claimed to have taken Kidal, one of the major cities in the north, most Malian positions in Gao, as well as "full control of Mopti and most military strongholds in Sévaré" in the center of the country. Several security sources confirmed to Le Monde that the regular army had lost numerous checkpoints in Gao and Sévaré. The situation, however, remains uncertain and volatile: many Malian soldiers and their allies from Africa Corps – the new name for the Russian presence in the Sahel, numbering 2,500 troops across Mali – remain holed up in camps in Sévaré and Gao.