In the early hours of 17 September a band of jihadist insurgents with links to Al Qaida launched attacks on the outskirts of the Malian capital Bamako embarrassing both Colonel Assimi Goïta's junta but also the Russian soldiers he had hired to replace French and other European forces...

After a spokesman for Ukrainian military information claimed his officials had provided information to the Malian insurgents Colonel Assimi Goïta's junta severed diplomatic ties with Kyiv...

The Malian military junta under Colonel Assimi Goïta has exhaustively repressed dissent but chronic power cuts fuel anti-government sentiment which is harder to control...

He stressed the importance of dialogue and visited the Malian leader Colonel Assimi Goïta and Burkina Faso's Captain Ibrahim Traoré before the bloc's 7 July summit had officially named him as facilitator in the region (Dispatches 9/7/24 The juntas take on the civilian presidents)...

In Mali the pro-Russian anti-French youth Yerewolo movement partly responsible for the junta claiming power fell victim to Assimi Goïta's hard line...

Disenchantment is also increasingly evident in Mali where Assimi Goïta's junta has banned all political activity...

On 1 May Colonel Assimi Goïta announced that holding elections and returning to constitutional rule was 'not a priority'...

Both men come from the ranks of the gendarmerie and are part of the close-knit circle around the original putschists including junta leader Assimi Goïta (AC Vol 61 No 17 The junta haggles on transition)...

In late 2023 he announced the end to his exile but did not return to Côte d'Ivoire instead travelling to the three junta-run Sahel states and heaped praises on Mali's leader Colonel Assimi Goïta for re-taking the former rebel fief of Kidal (AC Vol 64 No 24 Will Tidjane Thiam's 'grand retour' succeed...

Colonel Assimi Goïta's regime last week furiously declared that Mali is 'not Algeria's back yard' and unilaterally abrogated the 2015 Algiers peace accord with the former Tuareg separatists...