Mali’s foreign minister has rejected claims that jihadists could soon capture the capital, calling them unrealistic. It was the government’s first detailed response to growing security concerns that prompted Western nations to advise their citizens to leave the country.
The latest show of force by the jihadist group Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has raised international concern that it could eventually try to seize control of Mali.
Many schools in the capital, Bamako, have reopened this week, even as the city hosts a defence exhibition featuring Turkish companies.
Speaking at a press conference during the event on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said Mali was managing the impact of the recent fuel blockade and insisted that JNIM posed no serious threat to the country’s security forces.
"We are very far from the scenario being described to you outside our country, saying that the terrorists are here, they are in Bamako, they are going to take this, that," he said. "We are not at all in that scenario."
Those making such predictions, he added, "need to wake up from their dreams."
Diop said the goal of the blockade was to provoke unrest and destabilise the military-led government that took power following coups in 2020 and 2021. He also criticised the African Union’s recent call for an international response, saying it reflected “a poor understanding of conditions on the ground.”
While acknowledging that some Western nations had advised their citizens to leave Mali, Diop said he respected those decisions but stressed that the country remains open and welcoming to foreigners.
The military-led governments of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have withdrawn from the West African bloc ECOWAS, distanced themselves from Western allies, and strengthened military cooperation with Russia.
Diop added that relations with the United States were improving under the Trump administration, saying the two countries were engaged in “dialogue” on security and economic issues, though he did not provide details.
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One hundred years after the First World War and more than eighty years after the devastation of the Second World War gave rise to the United Nations, humanity once again finds itself living in an age of permanent crisis.
Flights arriving at Catania airport in eastern Sicily were suspended after volcanic ash from a new eruption of Mount Etna drifted into the airspace around the airport, disrupting operations at one of Italy’s busiest aviation hubs.
For months, efforts to secure the Red Sea have focused on what is happening in the water. Naval deployments have increased, governments have expanded maritime cooperation and shipping companies have adapted to persistent security threats.
Greenland has issued a “strong warning” to a U.S. oil company linked to President Donald Trump after drilling equipment was brought ashore without the required government approvals, according to British media.
Iran said it was nearing a final pact with Oman defining new shipping lanes between them through the Strait of Hormuz but repeated that the U.S. must meet other conditions.
Europe is facing more frequent and prolonged extreme heat, with climate change making heatwaves increasingly intense and widespread, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Tuesday.
Kyrgyzstan has proposed hosting part of Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries’ warehouse and logistics network, aiming to reduce supply-chain risks and strengthen trade with Russia.
North Korea has deployed troops, weapons and now, according to a Ukrainian intelligence official, a missile unit to support Russia's war against Ukraine, marking Pyongyang's most significant involvement in a war since the 1950s.
U.S. President Donald Trump has called for Iran to pay compensation for decades of deaths and damage, adding a new demand to peace talks as Tehran seeks compensation and sanctions relief before reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
A criminal court in Damascus has sentenced former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for premeditated murder, torture, arbitrary detention and crimes against humanity, according to Syria’s state news agency SANA.
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