Mali’s army struggling to contain jihadist threat

Mali’s military junta is facing one of its gravest challenges yet as jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) tightens a blockade around the capital, Bamako. The al-Qaeda-linked group, once confined to the north, has recently expanded southward, cutting off key trade routes to Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire and crippling fuel, food, and education systems.

Meanwhile, the Malian military, structured for conventional warfare, is overstretched and ill-equipped for this guerrilla conflict. Analysts say that corruption, poor intelligence, and overreliance on foreign partners such as Russia’s Wagner Group have also contributed to the military’s weak response.

This situation underscores a painful paradox: increased militarization has not brought security, revealing that a purely military solution is failing to address the deep-rooted governance and socioeconomic issues that fuel the insurgency.