On September 22, 2026, Mali marks its 66th anniversary. Six decades and six years have passed since Modibo Keïta proclaimed the country’s independence from France in 1960. The date has been declared a paid public holiday across the entire national territory, a strong symbolic gesture in a country where this year’s independence celebration nonetheless falls against a particularly bleak security backdrop.
For more than a year now, Mali has been living under the pressure of a blockade imposed by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist coalition. Announced on September 3, 2025 by its spokesman Abou Houzeifa al-Bambari, the strategy initially aimed to force the authorities to cut taxes on fuel imports in rural areas, before expanding into far broader demands, ultimately calling for the imposition of Islamic law. Since then, more than 300 fuel tankers have been destroyed on the main routes linking Mali to Senegal, Ivory Coast and Guinea, notably between Kaniara and Lakamane in the Kayes region, between Kolondieba and Kadiana, and near Sikasso. On April 28, 2026, the blockade intensified further, this time targeting the capital, Bamako, directly.
The impact on ordinary Malians’ daily lives has been severe. Hours-long queues formed outside gas stations, schools were forced to close between October 26 and November 9, 2025, and prolonged power cuts hit major cities across the country. The city of Mopti went without fuel for more than a month. Given the severity of the situation, the American and British embassies advised their citizens to leave Malian territory, while kidnappings attributed to JNIM increased. As recently as September 14, more than 900 fuel tankers had to enter Bamako under military escort, further proof, if any were needed, of just how fragile the country’s supply routes remain.
The government, which took power in a 2020 coup, is trying to respond on several fronts. Military escorts now accompany fuel convoys, the operations of the Diarra Transport company were suspended after its head accepted JNIM’s conditions, and Bamako announced the import of 200,000 tons of oil from Russia, a symbol of the junta’s deepening ties with Moscow even as the country distances itself from former partners, ECOWAS chief among them. Military spokesman Souleymane Dembele, for his part, chose to downplay the crisis, dismissing it as mere « information warfare. » On the ground, however, the jihadist threat shows no sign of easing: on September 10, JNIM launched an attack on a military camp in Dioura, and April’s offensive revealed growing coordination between the group and the Azawad Liberation Front, despite goals that appear, on the face of it, difficult to reconcile, the imposition of sharia on one side, Tuareg autonomy on the other. The country now counts more than 400,000 internally displaced people.
It was against this backdrop that General Assimi Goïta addressed the nation for the anniversary. His speech emphasized five priorities: security and territorial integrity, diplomatic sovereignty within the Alliance of Sahel States confederation, economic development driven by mining-sector reform, education and culture, with 2026-2027 declared a priority period in that area, and finally national reconciliation. The head of state highlighted economic growth of 5.6 percent in 2025, with a forecast of 6.3 percent for 2026, along with mining fund revenues reaching roughly 127.6 billion CFA francs. Invoking what he called a « Rectification of the Transition » and calling for unity around collective responsibility, Goïta summed up his philosophy in a single line: « The greatest asset we possess today is the ability to decide and act for ourselves. » The fuel and electricity situation was raised as a goal still to be stabilized, but the speech offered no concrete answer to the shortages that continue, day to day, to affect the Malian population.