{"id":46134,"date":"2026-09-22T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=46134"},"modified":"2026-09-22T13:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:24:08","slug":"malis-military-governance-fails-to-contain-expanding-sahel-insurgency","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/malis-military-governance-fails-to-contain-expanding-sahel-insurgency\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Mali&#8217;s military governance fails to contain expanding Sahel insurgency&#8217; \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mali\u2019s military government is struggling to curb the rapid expansion of militant groups across the Sahel despite pivoting to new geopolitical partners like Russia and Turkey and touting anti-colonial sovereignty, according to a political risk analyst.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Rise and Shine, Control Risks Senior Analyst for Francophone Africa Beverly Ochieng warned that replacing Western counterinsurgency missions with private Russian military units has not halted insurgent momentum. Instead, militant networks such as JNIM are actively expanding their operational reach from northern frontiers into central and southern Mali, directly threatening key economic and mining corridors.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ochieng highlighted that the military administration\u2019s policy of prioritising political survival and narrative control over inclusive governance has eroded democratic institutions and severely disrupted daily life. Thousands of schools remain closed, and militant blockades on fuel and transport routes are worsening economic conditions and reducing mobility for ordinary citizens.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She further noted that while the creation of the Alliance of Sahel States alongside Burkina Faso and Niger allows military regimes to entrench power, it fails to address the root causes of the conflict. Insurgent groups continue to exploit local intercommunal grievances and governance gaps to recruit heavily, extending their footprint toward the coastal states of West Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30890,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-46134","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Mali's military rule struggles to contain growing security crisis ","published_date":"2026-09-22 13:22:02","news_description":"Mali's military rule struggles to contain growing security crisis ","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46134","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\/46134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46135,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/46134\/revisions\/46135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=46134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}