{"id":15185,"date":"2025-11-13T10:29:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T08:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/jihadist-takeover-of-mali-is-far-fetched-foreign-minister\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:30","slug":"jihadist-takeover-of-mali-is-far-fetched-foreign-minister","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/jihadist-takeover-of-mali-is-far-fetched-foreign-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Jihadist takeover of Mali is far fetched: Foreign Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mali’s Foreign Minister has dismissed as implausible the notion that jihadists could soon take the capital, in the first extensive government response to security fears that have spurred Western countries to urge their citizens to leave.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The landlocked West African country is battling al Qaedalinked jihadists who in September announced what they described as a fuel blockade that has led to long lines at petrol stations in the capital and temporarily forced schools to close.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The latest show of force by the group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), has raised concern abroad that it might eventually try to impose its rule over the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The African Union on Sunday called for an urgent international response to worsening security conditions, and Western countries including the United States, France, Britain and Italy are urging their citizens to leave.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Yet despite such concerns, many schools have reopened this week and Bamako is hosting a defence exhibition featuring Turkish firms.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Speaking at a press conference at the exhibition late on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said Mali was successfully mitigating the effects of the fuel blockade and that JNIM was “no match” for the security forces.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We are very far from the scenario being described to you outside our country, saying that the terrorists are here, they are in Bamako, they are going to take this, that,” he said. “We are not at all in that scenario.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those making such predictions “need to wake up from their dreams,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15186,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-15185","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Mali dismisses as implausible the notion that jihadists could soon take the capital","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19534,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15185\/revisions\/19534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}