Analyse
Security Crisis in Mali: Territory, Alliances and Fragmented Sovereignty
The coordinated attacks of April 25, 2026 in Mali, jointly carried out by JNIM and the Azawad Liberation Front against Bamako, Kati, and several strategic cities, mark a major turning point in Mali’s security crisis and raise serious questions about the viability of the military strategy pursued by the junta and its Russian partners since 2021. The crisis is rooted in a long history of fragmented sovereignty and complex identity reconfigurations, where separatist and jihadist alliances are shaped more by tactical calculations than ideological convergence, producing consequences that extend far beyond Mali’s borders. To what extent do the states of the Sahel and the West African coastal region still possess the institutional and operational resources necessary to respond collectively to a threat whose very nature is transnational?