Given the ongoing shifts of the security and political situation in the region, any attempt to map this multitude of groups is by its nature inexact. This fluidity has led to frequent allegations that both pro-government and formerly separatist or non-jihadist armed groups have collaborated with various jihadist groups. Fighters often pass back and forth between all types of groups, based on geography or local circumstances. There are credible allegations of cooperation between ostensibly non-jihadist and jihadist armed groups. Even the lines between “jihadist” and “non-jihadist” armed groups are often unclear. Another challenge is that there are numerous armed groups operating in the region, sometimes with different and sometimes with shared goals and territories. Linked conflicts between different social and ethnic communities, between jihadist groups and the government, and between different armed groups often have no clear boundaries. The first is that these conflicts often overlap. MINUSMA is the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world but efforts to restore state authority have faltered, jihadist groups have grown and spread into Burkina Faso and parts of Niger, and local conflicts have also erupted in new and deadly ways.Īnyone trying to understand the landscape of armed conflict in Mali and the broader Sahel faces a dizzying array of challenges. The signing of peace accords in Algiers in June 2015 did not appreciably improve the situation. They slipped away and reorganised, coming back to attack the United Nations peacekeeping mission established in Mali, MINUSMA, as well as Malian and French forces and civilian targets in the capital Bamako and even beyond Mali’s borders. The French intervention under the guise of Operation Serval in January 2013 dislodged the jihadist groups from Mali’s cities, but did not eliminate them. The departure of the government from more than half of the country’s landmass and the pressure placed on local areas by resource competition, weapons proliferation, and clashing ideologies have all exacerbated Mali’s internal conflicts, patterns that have also played out elsewhere. The Tuareg rebellion and subsequent jihadist occupation of northern Mali in that year revealed several cleavages in society and governance that, while not new, have grown worse with time. Since 2012, Mali has faced a succession of violent conflicts.
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