Mali rejects claims capital is under threat from 'jihadists'

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The military-led governments of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have withdrawn from the West African bloc ECOWAS, distanced themselves from Western allies, and strengthened military cooperation with Russia.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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