France Urges Citizens To Leave Mali

France has issued an urgent advisory to its nationals in Mali, telling them to leave the West African country by commercial flight as soon as possible following a sharp deterioration in the security situation, including jihadist and separatist attacks on the capital Bamako over the weekend.

The French Foreign Ministry described the situation as extremely volatile and advised French citizens remaining in Mali to stay indoors, limit their movements and keep relatives informed of their whereabouts pending their departure. All travel to Mali has been strongly discouraged regardless of the purpose.

The advisory followed coordinated attacks on Saturday by the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and a Tuareg-dominated separatist group, which struck Mali’s main military base in Kati on the outskirts of Bamako and areas near the capital’s airport. The groups also pushed Russian troops supporting Mali’s military government out of the strategic northern town of Kidal.

Mali’s military leader vowed on Tuesday to neutralise those responsible for the attacks.

France warned that travel by road was also dangerous, as major national highways had become targets for armed groups. Citizens were advised to use only the commercial flights still available out of the country.

The United States and Britain had already announced the withdrawal of non-essential diplomatic staff and their families from Mali before France issued its advisory. France said its embassy in Bamako would remain open and that its diplomatic presence was unchanged.

The crisis marks a significant escalation for Mali’s military government, which seized power through back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021 and subsequently expelled French and other Western forces. It has since relied on Russian paramilitaries to help combat armed groups, an arrangement France has publicly criticised as ineffective.

A security analyst from the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute told AFP that the Malian state no longer controls meaningful territory beyond Bamako and is increasingly focused on protecting the regime rather than the population. A former United Nations human rights expert on Mali described the military government’s inability to contain the violence as a terrible admission of failure.

The unrest has also taken an economic toll. Swiss shipping company MSC announced it was suspending operations in Mali, citing the fuel blockade imposed by JNIM and the worsening security environment.