“Mali is on the brink of collapse as an al-Qaeda-linked insurgent group tightens its grip around the capital, Bamako.”
BAMAKO (Reuters) – Mali is on the brink of collapse as an al-Qaeda-linked insurgent group tightens its grip around the capital, Bamako, blocking fuel supplies and threatening to overthrow the ruling junta.
Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam al-Muslimin (JNIM) has vowed to establish a pre-modern caliphate, a move analysts say would devastate Mali’s 25 million citizens, especially women.
“It would be the end of secular governance and a shift to a theocratic system and sharia law, the abolition of democracy, lots of violence and repression, massive displacements, terrible for women’s rights and deepening ethnic divides,” said Eurasia Group’s West Africa analyst Jeanne Ramier.
A fall of Bamako would mark a major setback for Moscow-backed military rulers and could destabilize the wider Sahel. “It would definitely affect countries beyond the Sahel and the whole West Africa region,” Ramier warned, as JNIM’s advances threaten to spill into Burkina Faso, Niger, and coastal states like Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.