Country profile · West Africa
Mali
Mali has about 25 million people, among the youngest in the world. General Assimi Goïta has ruled since a second coup in 2021, with no election, and has banned political parties. JNIM, al-Qaeda's branch in the Sahel, has spread across the country and declared a blockade of the capital, Bamako. Gold makes up about three-quarters of Mali's exports.
Where Mali ranks
All rankings →Which alliances is Mali in?
All alliances →Who runs Mali?
General Assimi Goïta, then an army colonel, led a coup on August 18, 2020 against President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. Nine months later, on May 24, 2021, he removed the civilian transition president and took the post himself. He was born in 1983 and went to the military school in Kati. In October 2024 he promoted himself to army general, the top rank. In May 2025 the government dissolved all political parties. In July 2025 the transition council, whose members Goïta appointed, gave him a five-year term. It can be renewed "as many times as necessary" until the country is at peace, with no election. Critics go to prison: former prime minister Moussa Mara served a year for a post on X, and former prime minister Choguel Maïga has been held without trial since August 2025. On April 25, 2026 a car bomb killed the defense minister during jihadist attacks, and Goïta took the defense ministry himself.
Photo (July 2023): Kremlin.ru, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
Who are Mali's allies and rivals?
Mali's closest partners are Burkina Faso and Niger, also run by soldiers. The three formed the Alliance of Sahel States in 2023, made it a confederation in July 2024 and left the West African bloc ECOWAS in January 2025. They share a passport and a joint force of about 5,000 to 6,000 troops. Russia replaced France as Mali's main security partner. The Wagner group arrived in late 2021, and in June 2025 Russia's Africa Corps took over, with an estimated 1,000 to 2,500 men. Turkey sells Mali its armed drones. France pulled its last troops out in August 2022 after Mali expelled its ambassador, and the two have been at odds since. Mali cut ties with Ukraine in August 2024. Algeria shot down a Malian drone in April 2025, but the two restored ties in July 2026. The United States added Mali to its entry ban in January 2026, then lifted sanctions on Malian officials in February.
Allies and partners
- Bamako The capital. JNIM declared a blockade in April 2026. Fuel now arrives in army convoys.
- Kayes On the main road to Dakar. JNIM attacked here and six other towns on July 1, 2025.
- Kidal Tuareg rebels took it in April 2026. The army and Russian forces re-entered on October 6, 2026.
- Ménaka Area where the Islamic State's Sahel branch is strongest.
- Mali
- Partner
Who does Mali trade with?
Gold made up about three-quarters of Mali's exports in 2025 (IMF). Most of it is flown to refineries in South Africa and Australia, which is why they top the chart. Much more gold leaves unrecorded. The aid group SWISSAID estimates that 30 to 57 tonnes of undeclared gold leave each year, mostly for the United Arab Emirates. Industrial gold output fell from 66.5 tonnes in 2023 to 42.2 tonnes in 2025 (Ministry of Mines). The main cause was a fight with Barrick, the Canadian company that runs Mali's biggest gold mine. Mali seized its gold and jailed four of its staff. Barrick settled in November 2025, paying about $430 million, and got the mine back. Two lithium mines began exporting in 2025, one of them run by China's Ganfeng. Cotton is the other big export. About a third of imports are fuel, most of it trucked in from the ports of Dakar and Abidjan.
Sells to
Share of Mali's exports
South Africa56.2%
Australia11.6%
Côte d'Ivoire4.9%
Bangladesh4.4%
India4.3%
Senegal
Goods, 2024, as reported by Mali. UN Comtrade.
Who is fighting in Mali?
The strongest armed group is JNIM, al-Qaeda's branch in the Sahel. It formed in 2017 and is led by Iyad Ag Ghaly, a Tuareg leader. It has spread from the north and center to the south and west, up to the borders of Senegal and Guinea. In villages it controls, it collects an Islamic tax and enforces its own rules. The Islamic State's Sahel branch fights mainly around Ménaka. Since September 2025 JNIM has attacked fuel convoys to cut off Bamako. On April 25, 2026 JNIM and the Tuareg separatists of the Azawad Liberation Front struck several cities at once, and the army and Russian forces left Kidal. On September 10, 2026 JNIM overran the army camp at Dioura and killed at least 100 soldiers. The army and its Russian allies have also killed many civilians: 918 in 2025, against 232 killed by jihadists (ACLED). Mali had the seventh most conflict deaths in Africa in 2025 (chart).
Why did Mali turn from France to Russia?
Mali was a French colony until 1960. In January 2013 jihadists who held the north advanced south, and France sent troops at the government's request. Its mission, later called Barkhane, stayed for nine years, but the violence kept spreading. After the 2021 coup, the military government brought in the Russian Wagner group and delayed the elections it had promised. The West African bloc ECOWAS imposed sanctions from January to July 2022. Mali expelled the French ambassador in January 2022 and banned the French broadcasters RFI and France 24. The last French soldiers left in August 2022. The UN peacekeeping mission followed by the end of 2023. It had lost 311 personnel, more to attacks than any other UN mission. In 2023 a new constitution made French a working language and 13 national languages official. In June 2025 Goïta met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and the two governments signed a nuclear power agreement. Work on a Russian-backed gold refinery near Bamako began the same month.