Mali: The Overlap and Combination of Separatist, Jihadist and Intercommunal Conflicts

In 2018 Mali, supported by France, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and by militias of the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA) and the Imghad Tuareg Self-Defense Group and Allies (GATIA), continued to be involved in a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) on its territory against Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). According to the War Report, intercommunal clashes between Dan Nan Ambassagou and the Alliance for the Salvation of the Sahel also reached the threshold of a NIAC during the last year. This chapter in the War Report 2018 offers a complete overview of the several conflicts afflicting Mali in recent years. The first parttraces back the root causes of the initial Tuareg rebellion in the Northern regions, to then show the jihadist takeover of the insurgency. It provides an in-depth analysis of the planning, generation and deployment of two multinational operations, one sponsored by the African Union, the other authorised by the United Nations. It sheds light on the French intervention in Mali, first as Operation Serval and then under Operation Barkhane. Finally, it accounts for the progressive return to peace in the Northern territory, while intercommunal conflicts in the Central regions rise to the level of a separate non-international armed conflict. The second part of the chapter scrutinizes the status and legal position of each party to the conflict. Key developments in 2018 are then surveyed. The last part summarises concluded and ongoing prosecutions before the International Criminal Court for crimes committed in the Malian conflicts.