Mali junta delays elections by five years

Mali’s military rulers have postponed elections for five years amid a growing international outcry over the steady erosion of freedoms under the junta backed by Russian mercenaries.

The country has been hit by sanctions and suffered a collapse in relations with France, its once-steadfast military partner, after it underwent two successive coups and then abandoned elections due this month.

At the centre of the Sahel-wide insurgency, which has killed thousands of soldiers and civilians and displaced some two million people, Mali’s generals struck a deal with the Wagner Group, a Russian private army with links to the Kremlin.

Its parliament is dominated by members of the armed forces and has now approved the delay to elections, passing the legislation by 120 votes out of 121.

The military’s increasing grip on power has unsettled the West and thrown its international counterterrorism effort into doubt after President Macron announced last week that France would withdraw its troops in four to six months.

UN peacekeepers, among them 300 British troops, and an EU training mission are due to remain but several countries have indicated that their contributions may end.

President Sall of Senegal warned that the Sahel region could fall to jihadists. He pleaded with allies to keep soldiers in the country after Christine Lambrecht, the German defence minister, said she was “sceptical” about allowing its contingent of about 1,500 to remain.

“Mali cannot be abandoned. You have to maintain your presence in the Sahel. Africa needs it,” Sall said in a news conference in Dakar, the capital, with President Steinmeier of Germany.

The UN security council is to meet behind closed doors today to discuss the French exit, and its implications for the peacekeeping mission, which has been heavily reliant on French air and medical support.

Relations with Paris began to unravel after Malian army officers led by Colonel Assimi Goita deposed Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the elected president, in August 2020.

About 14,000 UN forces are stationed there, in what has been called the world’s most dangerous peacekeeping mission. Mali is racked by jihadist violence, with groups connected to Islamic State and al-Qaeda controlling swathes of the country.

Critics say that jihadists will be free to operate without the spectre of airstrikes once France leaves. On Friday eight Malian troops and 57 jihadists were killed in clashes at a rebel base near the border with Niger and Burkina Faso, which have also seen widespread bloodshed. About 40 civilians said to be loyal to rival jihadist groups were killed in the same area last week.