Jihadist groups in Mali are calling on all of the country's resistance groups to put ideology and religion aside in order to overthrow the military junta.
"We call on all sincere patriots, without exception, to rise up and let our forces join together in a united front," the al-Qaeda-linked umbrella organization JNIM announced.
In recent days, resistance groups have attempted to set up roadblocks around the capital, Bamako. Traffic at the entrances has thinned out.
The neighbors are attacking
Mali's military struck back on Thursday with "intensive aerial bombings" in cooperation with neighboring countries Burkina Faso and Niger, Niger announced.
The three states are ruled by military coup leaders who seized power with Russian help. They have replaced UN forces, including Swedish soldiers, with Russian ones. They have also built a new military alliance, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Since the war in Ukraine, Russia's commitments in West Africa have been reduced. Russian forces have suffered several defeats and this weekend were escorted out of the northern city of Kidal in northern Mali. Russian state media claim that they were actually preventing a major takeover.
“They have let us down”
The simmering Sahel conflict flared up into full-scale war last weekend, when jihadist forces and separatist nomadic groups in a motley pact launched an unusually large offensive.
Several cities and former UN bases in northern Mali have been taken over and there has been sporadic fighting in and around Bamako.
The junta's deputy leader, Sadio Camara, was killed by a car bomb in Bamako at the beginning of the escalation. Camara led contacts with Russia. Russia promises continued support, but the relationship is said to be very strained.
The Russians have betrayed us, a source in Mali's state apparatus told AFP.
In Burkina Faso, the government is reported to have sharply increased security in light of what is happening in Mali.
Facts: Russia in West Africa
Forces from the shadowy Wagner Group long carried out Russian missions in Africa. Their operations there have been taken over by the Russian military's so-called Africa Corps.
They have been active primarily in the so-called “coup belt” in southern Sahara. There have been Russian-backed military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, and in the Central African Republic, Russian forces are helping the incumbent government.
The governments of Chad and Equatorial Guinea have recently approached Russia.
Russian soldiers have taken over battles against jihadists in the Sahel that were previously fought by UN troops. There are reports of massacres and abuses. The Russians are also reported to have guarded economic interests and natural resources, and conducted extensive propaganda.
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have left the cooperation organization ECOWAS and the International Criminal Court (ICC). They have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which increasingly resembles a confederation with coordinated military power and common passports.
