France Urges Citizens to Leave Mali as Rebels Vow to Oust Junta

(Bloomberg) -- France urged its citizens to leave Mali “as soon as possible” as a separatist group vowed to expand its campaign to oust the nation’s military junta and Islamist militants renewed a threat to blockade the capital.

President Assimi Goïta conceded the country is facing a “moment of extreme gravity” after a series of coordinated attacks at the weekend left the nation’s defense minister dead and forced Malian and Russian mercenary forces to withdraw from a northern stronghold.

“These attacks are not isolated incidents, they’re part of a vast destabilization plan conceived and executed by terrorist groups,” Goïta said in a televised address late Tuesday. Still, “the situation is under control,” he said.

The attacks on April 25 present the most serious threat to Goïta’s regime since he seized power in a coup five years ago. They’ve also exposed Russia’s inability to help guarantee security in the vast West African nation, with the Kremlin-backed Africa Corps group that’s aligned with the junta being forced to withdraw from the key northern town of Kidal after the raids began.

When the junta seized power from Mali’s civilian leadership in 2021, it accused its predecessors of failing to protect civilians during a decade-long insurgency. The military quickly ended United Nations peacekeeping operations, severed ties with European partners and moved closer to Russia.

Operations are ongoing to neutralize the assailants, Goïta said, while reaffirming security cooperation with Russia whose armed forces will “fight together” with Mali against the attacks.

“We will fight together against the treacherous attacks of terrorism now intensifying on Malian territory,” Russia’s ambassador to Mali, Igor Gromyko, said in remarks broadcast on national television after a meeting with Goïta.

In a video shared on social media on Tuesday, Al-Qaeda’s Malian affiliate — Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin — said the capital of Bamako was “surrounded” and declared a blockade. Bloomberg wasn’t immediately able to verify the video. The group previously used the same channel in September to announce a months-long fuel blockade that brought the 4 million-strong city to a halt.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for the separatist Azawad Liberation Front vowed to force Russian forces to withdraw from the country entirely. The group, which includes members of the ethnic Tuareg and Fulani communities, also vowed to seize more territory in northern Mali, Agence France-Presse reported, citing FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane.

“We have already liberated Kidal, Taoudéni was already under our control, and Gao, Timbuktu, and Menaka will also be our next objectives to liberate,” he was quoted as saying. “Our goal is for Russia to withdraw permanently from Azawad and, beyond that, from all of Mali,” he said, referring to the name it uses to identify northern Mali.

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--With assistance from Diakaridia Dembele.

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