Mali

The Shanghai-born pharmacist is standing in Mali’s 25 November and 15 December legislative elections and is the country's first candidate to hold Chinese citizenship.

The spate of Islamist violence in northern Mali early this month confirms the warnings of French military and United Nations peacekeepers that the jihadists who had melted away...

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta emphasised his inaugural message of reconciliation and tolerance with a major national celebration for the country on 19 September, with heads of state from...

Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta approaches his 19 September inauguration as Mali’s new President backed by an overwhelming 77.62% of the vote, to Soumaïla Cissé’s 22.38%. The mandate sets him...

Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK) had always looked the man to beat in the Malian presidential race and as Africa Confidential went to press, it was clear that he...

The leading contenders in Mali’s presidential race are jostling to present themselves as the best defenders of national pride, as the date for the first round looms on...

Bamako has signed a deal with the Mouvement national pour la libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) that will allow its army and civil servants to enter Kidal for the...

The conference hosted in Brussels by the European Union on 15 May was seen as a political and financial success. One hundred countries sent delegations and those from...

Partisan politics is back as the Bamako establishment focuses on the presidential election promised for 7 July. The transitional government of President Dioncounda Traoré, encouraged by the United...

A meeting with financial institutions, regional neighbours and external partners in Brussels, Belgium, on 15 May is the next main focus for the accelerating international drive to help...

The official version is that France’s Mali operation has achieved all its objectives – the expulsion of jihadist forces from main northern towns and the destruction of several...

As the military operation in Mali continues, fresh complications arise. Early reports from the European trainers suggest that progress in restoring the discipline and effectiveness of the Malian...

The strange pact under which President Dioncounda Traoré appointed the serial putschist Captain Amadou Sanogo as head of the military reform committee in a grand ceremony in Bamako...

The war against the jihadists is winding into the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains on the Malian-Algerian border. Last week, French and Chadian forces retook Tessalit, some 90 kilometres...

The Khartoum regime’s ties with Islamists in the region are under scrutiny again following the arrival in Darfur of jihadists retreating from the French military campaign in northern...

The political questions facing Mali are more formidable than the diplomatic and logistical challenges facing France when it intervened on 11 January. After jihadists fled from Gao and...

Last June, as jihadists consolidated their grip on northern Mali, Alghabass ag Intallah joined Ansar Eddine, to the surprise of many in the region. His father, Intallah ag...

As France pours men and money into the battle against jihadists, the contours of Mali’s crisis are rapidly changing. Bombing raids may have ended the militants’ hegemony over...

The grand plan for Mali’s army to wrest the northern provinces of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu from jihadist militias is due to swing into operation in the...

New Prime Minister Django Sissoko has started well, winning support for his government with his consensual style. A member of the nominated Transitional Assembly before his promotion, he...

Uncertainty hangs over three controversial deals with China that President Dioncounda Traoré’s outgoing transitional government had hoped to conclude before the first round of national elections held on...

China is sending troops to the new United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in late June that it would dispatch its...

While Mali’s government is preoccupied with retaking the northern region occupied by Islamists and Tuareg rebels, Indian firm Sahara Mining is facing challenges of its own in Tienfala,...

Japan promised US$120 million, India $101 mn. and China $1 mn. These headline pledges in emergency aid to Mali graphically illustrate Beijing’s unease at a crisis-management strategy spearheaded...