A month after the coup in Mali, the military leaders remain firmly committed to the fight against jihadists, but until there is a deal on restoring democracy the position looks fragile, writes West Africa analyst Paul Melly.The final shape of Mali’s promised transition to new elections is yet to be settled several weeks after soldiers seized power in Bamako, forcing President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta to resign, although former Defence Minister Ban Ndaw has been named as interim leader.The junta hope this will satisfy fellow members of the Ecowas bloc of West African countries to accept its plan, after weekend talks to reassure opposition sceptics.But from the outset, the putchists sent a clear message to the international partners who have thousands of troops deployed to tackle the decade-old security crisis that sees northern Mali continuing to suffer jihadist attacks while central areas are scarred by inter-communal tensions and violence.Colonel Major Ismaël Wagué, spokesman for the junta – the self-proclaimed National Committee for the Salvation of the People (CNSP) – insisted that the UN peacekeeping force in Mali, the French anti-terrorist force, troops from allied Sahelian countries and a new European special forces operation were all “partners in the restoration of stability”.
Over the past year or so there had been signs that some Malians were increasingly resentful of the French military presence, despite their role as vital allies for the over-stretched and sometimes beleaguered national forces.But Col Maj Wagué scrupulously refrained from indulging simplistic nationalistic sentiment.He made it clear that Mali’s new military masters were keen to continue working closely with the international forces – just as they were hoping to secure Ecowas agreement to their plans for the political road ahead.
Although a final deal with the regional bloc on transition terms is proving elusive, the jihadist threat remains.So the military campaign in the north continues – and it remains a pretty high-risk exercise: two more French soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb near the Saharan town of Taoudenni on 5 September, just the latest in a conflict that has claimed 45 French lives and many more Malian and UN casualties since 2011.
Heavy defeats for Mali’s military
While many troops have been killed in small incidents, there have also been major attacks in which dozens have died, usually when outlying Mali army garrisons are overrun.
The first such incident – the “Aguelhok massacre” of January 2012, when jihadist and Tuareg separatist militants executed around 100 captives after seizing a remote desert base – helped to fuel the discontent among rank and file troops that culminated in a mutiny and military coup in March of that year.More than seven years later, and despite a long-running European Union programme to retrain the military and rebuild both their morale and their technical military skills, the army was still suffering occasional heavy defeats.