Editorial: Le Monde

• Bamako has been taken over by jihadists and the establishment of Islamic law in Mali seems possible again.
• The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (JNIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda, controls a large part of the country and is strangling the capital by blocking incoming fuel tankers.
• Colonel Assimi Goïta's junta, self-proclaimed general in 2024, appears powerless to stop this blockade and has dismissed high-ranking army officers for lack of results.
• Promises of security and sovereignty have given way to a dictatorial regime, the abolition of elections, the dissolution of political parties, the imprisonment of opponents, the silencing of the press and the closure of the country to foreign journalists.
• The state army and Russian mercenaries are unable to counter the jihadists thriving in the absence of the state.
• The JNIM, which aspires to power and imposes Sharia law, demands women to veil and to be separated from men.
• A great waste is evident after more than a decade of French military intervention, scorned for analysis errors, misinterpretations, and condescension.
• The Malian military, unconcerned with insecurity and poverty in the country, focus on maintaining their power position.

Conclusion: Assimi Goïta and his lieutenants are pushing Mali, an active and open state, towards becoming an African version of Afghanistan, with incalculable consequences for the entire Sahel region, specifically for the neighbors Senegal and Ivory Coast, and especially for the women of Mali.

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