Trump Administration Reportedly Considering Military Operations in Mali

These attacks are purportedly being planned against an Islamist rebel grouping, yet the military government has been a target of the West along with neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Wednesday July 29, 2026

Geopolitical Analysis

In a recent Washington Post article, it reports that the United States administration of President Donald Trump has been weighing possible military strikes in the West African state of Mali. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/07/22/trump-administration-weighs-military-options-mali-officials-say/)

The purported airstrikes would be aimed at the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliated rebel grouping who have been involved in numerous armed attacks on the central government in Mali.

Earlier the JNIM grouping had established a fuel blockade against the southern capital city of Bamako. The Malian government has broken military ties with the former colonial power of France and is now relying on security assistance from the Russian-based Africa Corps.

Since late 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have operated under the Liptako-Gourma Charter which was formed by the AES. There is cooperation between these three landlocked states on the military, security and economic level.

Since the expulsion of French and US troops from the AES, both Paris and Washington have been hostile towards this West African alliance which has broken with the decades-old Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). However, the Trump administration which took power for the second non-consecutive term during January 2025, has engaged the Malian government around providing intelligence assistance against the JNIM.

During the early months of 2026, the JNIM launched a joint attack with the Tuareg separatist group, the Azawad Liberation Front, on several northern and southern regions of the country. The Minister of Defense was killed in the attacks. Rebels were able to penetrate the capital of Bamako attacking the airport and the military headquarters.

Although the attacks were repelled by the Malian military with the assistance of the Africa Corps, the threats still remain. Any US involvement in Mali or any other AES country should be examined critically.

There is widespread agreement among various geopolitical analysts and historians that the origins of al-Qaeda are within US intelligence during the Washington-led attempts to overthrow the socialist-oriented government in Afghanistan during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In subsequent years, al-Qaeda has taken responsibility for numerous bombings which resulted in many deaths primarily of civilians. 

The September 11, 2001 attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City have been attributed to al-Qaeda. 19 men, many of whom were from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, hijacked four planes crashing them into the WTC and the Pentagon. One of the planes went down in the state of Pennsylvania. 

Thousands of people were killed in these attacks including the entire crews and passengers on the flights. The 19 al-Qaeda operatives were all killed during the operation and therefore the hijackers, using knives and box cutters, could not be interrogated on their motivations. 

The 9-11 attacks in 2001 provided a rationale for the massive bombing and invasion by the Pentagon into Afghanistan. Although none of the individuals identified as the rebels responsible for the hijackings were from Afghanistan, this same country which had been targeted for destabilization under socialism then became the culprits in the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon then being dominated by the Taliban, an Islamist movement. 

Under the leadership of then President George W. Bush, Jr. in 2001, the occupation war against Afghanistan was launched. A US-backed regime was installed and coordinated for two decades.

In 2021, the US was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan under the then President Joe Biden. Consequently, after a 20-year occupation and the deaths of thousands of Afghans and US troops along with its NATO allies, the operation was considered a complete failure which resulted in the triumph of the Taliban whom established the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan which is still in place after five years.

Mali Operation Would Also be Disastrous

One important factor to consider involving the situation in Mali and the AES countries is the role of the US in destabilizing the state through the Washington-backed regime in Ukraine. Reports during 2024 revealed that Ukraine had provided assistance to the Malian rebels in their operations. (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/8/malis-spat-with-kyiv-is-the-russia-ukraine-war-spilling-over-into-africa)

Since the Africa Corps was aiding the Mali government of General Assimi Goita, the Ukrainian regime began to boast about its operational support to JNIM. These developments prompted the severing of diplomatic relations between Kyiv and Bamako. 

Therefore, why would the US offer to provide intelligence assistance to Mali at this stage? Obviously, Washington would want to lure Bamako back into the western imperialist camp. In previous years, Mali had housed troops from the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). In addition to the presence of AFRICOM, France had intervened with thousands of troops in early 2013 under the guise of fighting terrorism.

Yet the problems of rebel insurgencies in Mali took place after the US-backed counter-revolution in the North African state of Libya. The Islamist rebel groupings were utilized by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), NATO and the Pentagon as ground troops while the imperialists and their allies bombed Libya from the air for eight months.

Tens of thousands of Libyans were killed while two million were displaced. Longtime leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi and other Libyan leaders were killed in targeted assassinations during 2011. The US under the administration of then President Barack Obama took full responsibility for the overthrow of the Jamahiriya administration under Gaddafi and the consequent destruction of what was Africa’s most prosperous state. 

Many of these rebels then fled into Mali initiating a destabilization policy in this neighboring state as well. Therefore, the current security crisis in Mali and the other AES countries is the direct result of the interventions by the US, France and other NATO states. 

Operation Barkane, a French military and intelligence operation, brought in several regional states ostensibly to counter the rebel insurgents. However, between 2013 and 2020 the security situation in the Sahel states worsened. In 2020, Goita and his allies took power and began to reorient the security apparatus of Mali.

The Malian military government rightfully began to blame France and other NATO states as being responsible for the destabilization in the region. Russia was asked to assist Mali in security matters. Diplomatic relations were strengthened between the AES and the Russian Federation.

Any dialogue between Bamako and Washington around security questions could never be beneficial to the people of Mali and the AES. The same justification for interventions by Washington has taken on similar story line as in Mali. 

In Libya there was the false claims that the Gaddafi government was planning a massacre of the people in Benghazi where the counter-revolution was started. Afghanistan was said to have been a threat to US and world security. At present, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been accused of attempting to build nuclear weapons. The genocide against the Palestinians is falsely justified by accusing them of being terrorists. After the killings of more than 73,000 Palestinians, the US government refuses to condemn the State of Israel for violations of the Genocide Convention while still supplying the zionists with billions of dollars in weapons and diplomatic assistance. 

There Can be No Peace Under Imperialism and Neo-colonialism

The only way peace can be achieved in West Africa and West Asia is for the people themselves to take control of their security apparatus and to remove imperialist influence from these geopolitical regions. Despite the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Trump administration does not want to accept defeat in their failed attempt at fomenting a counter-revolution in Tehran.

Mali and other AES governments have pledged to maintain their transformational process of nationalizing industries and reforming trade regulations to benefit the people of the region. Even though the western imperialists have continued to back the rebels waging war on the AES countries, the economic situation has improved in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.

The events in the AES should serve as a lesson to all 55 member-states of the African Union (AU). Until the continent can unite to form its own formidable security apparatuses and independent foreign policy and economic programs, the region will remain under neo-colonialism and its consequent indebtedness, underdevelopment and deepening impoverishment.