African Union Calls for Urgent Action in Insurgency-hit Mali
The African Union has called for an urgent international response, including intelligence-sharing, to address worsening security conditions in Mali, where insurgents are imposing a fuel blockade and kidnapping foreigners.
An Al Qaeda-linked group active in West Africa’s Sahel region has blocked fuel imports since September, attacking convoys of tankers and creating a shortage that forced schools and businesses to shut.
The latest show of force by the group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, has raised concern that it might eventually try to impose its rule over the landlocked country. Western countries including the US, France, Britain and Italy are urging their citizens to leave, Reuters reported.
In a statement on Sunday, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, chairperson of the African Union Commission, expressed “deep concern over the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Mali, where terrorist groups have imposed blockades, disrupted access to essential supplies, and severely worsened humanitarian conditions for civilian populations”.
He said there should be “enhanced cooperation, intelligence-sharing and sustained support” for countries in the Sahel affected by violent extremism.
The African Union suspended Mali after the 2021 coup that brought the country’s current leader, Assimi Goita, to power. The military-led governments of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have withdrawn from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS, distanced themselves from Western allies and turned to Russia for military support.
JNIM claims to have killed hundreds of soldiers in attacks on military installations in those three countries this year. Their governments have not commented on the toll.
