Description: General Assimi Goita, Mali’s incumbent president, has issued a presidential decree, declaring himself as defense minister. Goita would hold both positions with Oumar Diarra, serving as the deputy defense minister, after the assassination of Sadio Camarra in last week’s joint offensive by JNIM and the FLA. The self – appointment arrives after several members of the military junta were discovered to have collaborated with JNIM and the FLA in coordinating and executing the nationwide attacks. Niger and Burkina Faso announced that within AES (Alliance of Sahel States), an official strategic partnership focused on defense, the three countries are launching airstrike operations against terrorist and separatist forces operating across the three countries. Russian media sources have reported that Mali’s military and Africa Corps, continue to locate and neutralize the militants across the entire country with 17 JNIM operatives killed in an operation in the village of Sebabougou.
Impact: Goita’s self – appointment as minister of defense is likely due to the breaches discovered within the Malian military and individuals who have collaborated with the terrorists and separatists in launching their offensive. Sadio Camara, considered instrumental to the junta’s strategy to discredit international partnerships and allow Russian forces in the country, was indispensable as defense minister while Goita is currently unable to fill the void as divisions and desertions plague the military junta. The undertaking of the defense ministry is also likely a power consolidation move as much of the civilian population is potentially witnessing the fragility of the military and other types of control that the junta exercises. The joint operation within AES is likely a symbolic depiction of the strategic partnership since airstrike campaigns have failed to deliver any results in the past considering the territorial dispersal of the terrorists and separatist in the three countries. Mali remains largely unstable and risks entering a protracted period of conflict with the terrorists and separatist controlling larger parts in the northern and eastern parts of the country which likely positions Mali into a state of internal partition in the long – term, depending on the intensity of operations by the terrorist and separatist forces.