Source : Sahel weather October 2024 

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In Mali, the news of October was marked by the promotion of Colonel Assimi Goïta following a decision taken by the Council of Ministers on October 16, 2024. Raised to the rank of five-star army general, he becomes the country's highest-ranking officer after Moussa Traoré and Amadou Toumani Touré, who all came to power through coups d'état. During the ceremony, General Assimi Goïta also elevated the five officers who took part in the overthrow of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta's regime in 2020 to the rank of Lieutenant General, as well as government spokesman Abdoulaye Maïga to the rank of Major General. Despite the question of his probable participation in the next presidential election, on which he has still not made up his mind despite the proposal made by his supporters in the recommendations at the end of the consultation days initiated by the authorities, the Malian President of the transition was keen to take part in a parade in his pick-up truck, to the delight of his supporters, who turned out in large numbers to cheer him on.

Opponents of the regime of the now General Assimi Goïta, denounce a self-elevation on the part of the president of the transition and his lieutenants. Moussa Mara, the former Prime Minister under IBK, is denouncing this, and is now speaking out in a discreet, sometimes anonymous manner to avoid repression. “ I'm doubly saddened. The first sorrow is that Malian traditions mean that we don't elevate ourselves, it's others who elevate us. The fact of gratifying oneself greatly diminishes the merit of the gratification,” he asserts.

The era of nationalization seems to be a reality even in Mali's telecommunications sector. While the Malian government is claiming 165 billion CFA francs from SOTELMA, the latter is in turn demanding money. In this confrontation, the company which, along with Orange, constitutes the two largest telephone operators in Mali, risks having its license, which expires this year, withdrawn. As a reminder, Malian Minister Alousseni Sanou categorically refused the compensation proposed by SOTELMA on the grounds that it would involve “ charges of different kinds, the amounts of which have not yet been validated. ” After revealing the new mining code to the general public in 2023, Mali's transitional government is facing up to any mining company operating in the country for strict compliance with the code. As a result, three gold producers active in Mali - AlliedGold, B2Gold and Robex - have decided to bring their operations into strict compliance with the new mining code.

In Mali, as in the other two AES member countries, deadly attacks continue to multiply despite the organization's initiatives, and despite the collaboration between the military and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group. Indeed, after the JNIM attacks in Bamako in September and the clashes between the Malian army and Wagner mercenaries against the pro-independence rebels of the Cadre Stratégique Permanent pour la Défense du Peuple de l'Azawad (CSP-DPA), relations between FAMA and Russia seem to be deteriorating.

Following the recapture of Kidal in November 2023, the Malian armed forces are continuing their reconquest of the national territory, which has been one of the transitional government's priorities since 2020. Indeed, the large-scale clashes in July between the Malian military and their Russian allies against the separatists of the North, reportedly caused many casualties both on the side of the Malian army and on the side of the separatists located at Tinzawaten on the border with Algeria. "Azawad fighters control the situation in Tinzaouatene and further south in the Kidal region. The Russian mercenaries and the Malian Armed Forces (Famas) have fled. Others have surrendered", CSP-DPA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane told AFP. While the separatists spoke of a Malian army helicopter being hit and crashing to the ground, the Malian military spoke of an “emergency landing” of the helicopter. When AFP reported: "The CSP people are still in Tinzaouatene. The army and Wagner are no longer there", was it to announce a failure on the part of the Malian army? If not, one might well ask, on what grounds did the Malian army and the Russian mercenaries of the Wagner group carry out an offensive operation described by Jeune Afrique as “Vengeance”? In its defense, the Malian army would have carried out this operation in October 2024 with a view to recovering the bodies of soldiers killed during the latest clashes. This raises the question of whether the collaboration between the Malian army and the Wagner group is in line with the transitional government's strategy of reclaiming territory in Mali.

Some even point to the beginnings of a breakdown in collaboration. The reason for this is that some high-ranking members of the Malian army have complained about the behavior of the Russian mercenaries who, in Telegram loops, speak of a “lack of professionalism” on the part of the Malian military. According to Mathieu Olivier in decrypting video, "Since the arrival of Wagner, there has always been a form of contempt on the part of the Russian mercenaries towards the Malian army. They arrived in a position of saviors, so they didn't have a very good image of the Malian army. According to Mr. Olivier, the two allies did not get off to a bad start. While there is talk of a rift between Mali and the Wagner group, the Senegalese President, who has been designated by ECOWAS as facilitator of its relations with the ESA, has entrusted this task to his special envoy Abdoulaye Bathily, who first visited Burkina Faso, then Mali, to express Senegal's solidarity with the numerous terrorist attacks facing ESA countries.

While Étienne Fakaba Cissoko'srequest for provisional release granted by the judge was refused by the public prosecutor's officedue to the seriousness of the charges against him, one of the most outspoken voices of the ruling party is seeing his health deteriorate due to the difficult conditions of his detention. As a reminder, he has been charged with “attacking the credit of the State”, “insults” and “spreading false news disturbing public peace”.