On April 25, Mali’s brutal civil war escalated. Thousands of Al-Qaeda and Tuareg separatist forces launched coordinated attacks across the country. Russian and Malian forces fled in the hundreds, leaving civilians defenseless. Defense Minister Sadio Camara was killed, thousands of Malian civilians were displaced, and fear spread across the country. The capital, Bamako, is now under siege with food, gas, and other essential commodities being blocked from entering the city.
This attack was a result of a coordinated offensive between the Al-Qaeda linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). Jihadist and Tuareg separatists groups have been waging war against the government in Mali since 2012, at times allied with each other and at other points in direct conflict. The two groups are coordinating on a pragmatic basis, based on placing immense pressure on the government by provoking fear throughout society, including by carrying out terrorist attacks on civilians.
As of mid-May the offensive has slowed down, but the situation remains severe. Mali’s horrific humanitarian crisis is pushing the country past the tipping point. More than 6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. 500,000 people are displaced and half of them are children. Schools, hospitals, and other essential services have shut down across Mali. There are more than 400,000 pregnant women who lack access to adequate medical care.
The Disaster of Russian Imperialism & Roots of Terrorism
Mali’s military government came to power after coups in 2020 and 2021. It kicked out French and UN troops in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Since then, Mali’s government has relied on Russian mercenaries to fight against insurgencies across the country. The Wagner Group, which operates as the Africa Corps, is a group of Russian mercenaries who work directly under the Russian defense department.
Russian imperialism has pretended to be a “non-colonialist, liberating force” in the Sahel region. They parade their Africa Corps in front of the African ruling classes, marketing them as an effective panacea to solve their problem of unending insurgencies and uprisings. Mali has spent millions of dollars for these mercenaries to supposedly protect the Malian people, but in reality, the country has become a subject of Russian imperialism and the promise of stability remains unfulfilled.
Banditry and terrorism are symptoms of capitalism and imperialism. Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and other countries across the Sahel are subjugated to great imperialist countries such as the United States, France, Russia and China as they battle for global domination for plunder. The global capitalist crises flowing from these wars, economic collapse, and climate-change-induced famine, will drive a layer of society toward sectarian violence.
The Tuaregs, a Nomadic group based mainly in the north, have long faced discrimination and had their demands for self-determination denied. But the actions by the FLA, allied with ultra-reactionary Al-Qaeda forces, do not in any sense represent the interests or aspirations of the wider Tuareg population. Similarly, the military governments in the Sahel, allied with Russian imperialism, don’t represent the interests or aspirations of the population of the Sahel region.
Russian imperialism has only exacerbated banditry, terrorism, and ethnic sectarianism in the Sahel. Putin has “offered” Mali’s military junta as well as other African governments, a “regime survival package.” Russia will provide military and security deals in exchange for complete access to uranium, gold, and other natural resources. Mali is one of the largest gold producers in the world, but has lacked the ability to process and refine gold. Russia has seized these gold deposits, robbing wealth from the Malian people, in exchange for these “security deals” which have failed to deliver any stability.
In the face of the April 25 offensive, hundreds of Russian troops abandoned their posts and fled into Algeria after the Africa Corps negotiated passage to avoid the fighting. An untold amount of military equipment was left behind as JNIM and FLA took over various bases. Since then, Africa Corps has responded with intense airstrikes in insurgent-held areas with large civilian populations, regardless of the innocent casualties that result.
Russian imperialism’s intervention into Mali exposes its truly rotten role across the region. Rather than being a liberating force, it has in effect stolen millions from one of the poorest countries on earth, to bolster its influence to counter US and European imperialism. Malian workers, poor, and the oppressed are seen as pawns by Russian, Chinese, US, and European imperialism as well as by the top of the military junta.
Hypocrisy of French Imperialism
French imperialism arrogantly gloated about the defeat dealt to Malian forces after April 25. The reality is they have carried out horrific crimes not just in Mali, but across Western Africa, and the dire situation today is a direct result of French imperialism’s legacy.
Mali was once a French colony, and fought a relentless struggle for independence that was achieved in 1960. However, contrary to the hopes of the masses, a small elite came to power, accepting almost complete economic and political dependence on French imperialism. Even their currency, the CFA Franc, is tied to the French treasury to this day, as is the case in many former French colonies in Africa.
The situation was hardly any better when France intervened in Mali in 2012-13, laying the basis for the military coups in the first place. Young Africans across the Sahel have been part of mass demonstrations against the social crisis, armed violence, with a righteous anger against French and Western imperialism that has accumulated across generations, as well as against different national governments.
Illusions in the AES
The offensive at the end of April was stalled mainly due to military intervention from Burkina Faso and Niger, with coordinated airstrikes and ground troops from their newly created regional force, the Alliance of Sahel States (Alliance des États du Sahel) or AES. Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are all controlled by military governments that were established over the past several years through coups.
AES is locked in an accelerating regional power struggle with the Nigerian-led Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS. AES leaders point at the hypocrisy of ECOWAS’s so-called “democracies” with their unabashed allegiance to Western imperialists like the United States and France. They also argue that Western-aligned African states are supposedly allowing Western imperialists to use their infrastructure to support insurgencies in AES countries. In turn, ECOWAS, particularly Nigeria, has pointed to AES as a growing regional danger and existential threat to their own regimes. But ultimately neither alliance defends the fundamental interests of the working and poor masses in the region.
Desperate for change, many young African people across both AES and ECOWAS countries and in the African diaspora support the military juntas. After the April 25 offensive, hundreds of members of the Malian diaspora demonstrated in Paris in support of the military government. In particular, Burkina Faso’s military leader Ibrahim Traoré has the highest profile among the junta leaders, as many young Africans compare him to the legendary African revolutionary Thomas Sankara. His Pan-Africanist rhetoric, along with limited but undeniable gains for segments for the workers and farmers, is seen as a direct contrast with the decrepit, ancient leaderships of many ECOWAS countries like Nigeria, who flaunt their wealth in front of the masses.
In Nigeria, Tinubu’s IMF-guided policies have deepened the social crisis and led to increased armed violence with hundreds of Nigerians being slaughtered by Islamist militias in rural Northern Nigeria. It’s undeniable that Traoré serves as an inspirational figure for millions of Africans and even those in the African diaspora. But, reality has made it clear that despite their rhetoric these military juntas are incapable of solving the immense societal crises resulting from capitalism and imperialism.
In Mali, Assimi Goïta has employed similar rhetoric and methods to Traoré. The coups of 2020 and 2021 came on the heels of mass protests sparked by irregularities in the 2020 parliamentary elections, which were held during the Covid lockdown. Since coming to power, Goïta has engaged in a protracted struggle with the Canadian-based Barrick Mining Corporation. This included seizing $117 million of gold from the mine, detaining employees of the mine, and ordering the arrest of the company’s CEO, Mark Bristow. These actions, however, were carried out from above, without any involvement from the Malian working class. In the end, the government returned the mine and expropriated gold to Barrick, in exchange for a $437 million settlement.
Security has only gotten worse for the majority of people in Mali and across the Sahel. In fact, these military juntas have targeted journalists for daring to report how bad the situation really is. These figures are so brazen about this, that a Mali government official recently openly joked to an Al Jazeera journalist that he sometimes thought about putting journalists in jail “just for fun.”
The AES has also actively worked alongside US imperialism, accepting defense arrangements and joint-military operations. The United States recently dropped sanctions on Russian Africa Corps officials working inside Mali. This is connected to US imperialism’s growing accommodationist approach toward Russian imperialism, which means that AES countries are being squeezed by both Russian and US imperialism.
Down With Imperialism and Capitalism!
Capitalism and imperialism are clearly failing the Malian masses, and all working and poor people across the Sahel. These military leaders cannot resolve the immense social crises impacting the region. Despite their radical lingo at times, they are an armed and undemocratic part of the capitalist state. A real force for change has to be based on the strength of the masses of working people and the poor.
The military cannot substitute itself for the enormous power of the working class across the Sahel region. The workers in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger could inspire millions of other workers and poor people across Africa and the globe to fight against their own capitalist classes, and demand an end to imperialist nations plundering the Sahel and the rest of the African continent through military deals, the seizing of its natural resources, and rotten loan agreements.
Ultimately there are no good options on offer among the imperialist powers, be they French, American, British, Russian or Chinese. Russia and China, who have entered the scene of imperial domination of West Africa later than France, have attempted to pose as a better choice. But they all represent the same interest of taking control of the wealth and resources of the African continent for their own benefit.
The workers and poor people across West Africa and the Sahel share far more in common with one another than their respective ruling classes. As capitalism and imperialism continue to provoke crises across the continent, there is an urgent need for democratic, multi-ethnic, independent, working-class organizations to wrestle against the ruling class to fight for basic necessities. The mines and other major sectors of the economy should be nationalized and controlled democratically by the working masses of Mali, not by militias, military governments, or any imperialist forces. Only a socialist transformation of society can provide equal rights, the right to self-determination, and genuine peace across the region. This will require international coordination not just across the continent, but around the world.
