The generals have corralled companies to start up the world s biggest iron ore mine next year after overcoming serial legal and financing obstacles, After nearly three decades of delays and litigation, production at the giant Simandou iron ore reserves is to start early next year, say the main investors.
The regime s split with the anti-French and pro-Russian Yerewolo – its biggest supporter – may have been provoked by links to Hizbollah, Fear of links to Iran and Hizbollah helped turn interim President Colonel Assimi Goïta s regime against its biggest domestic supporter, and to imprison its leader and harass other senior members of Yerewolo – Debout Sur Les Ramparts ( standing on the ramparts ), according to diplomatic sources.
The mercenary Wagner group will be the main beneficiary as international peacekeepers prepare to quit and jihadists step up attacks, Malian junta leader Col Assimi Goïta pronounced himself very satisfied on his Twitter account following a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 14 June. The two men discussed Russian deliveries of wheat, fertiliser and fuel, while Goïta also thanked Putin for the latter s assistance in fighting terrorism and stabilising the situation in Mali.
Mahamat Déby s plan to stay on at least until late 2024 and keep control of security is in question after state forces brutally suppressed demonstrations
, Interim President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno Kaka and his inclusive new government, which boasts reconciled oppositionists and reformed militia leaders, is in deep crisis after security forces, many in plain clothes, unleashed a wave of deadly violence against demonstrators in N Djamena and the southern cities of Moundou, Sahr, Koumra and Doba, on 20 October, the date when the military had initially pledged to hand power back to the civilians.
The army is accused of running a ruthless counter-insurgency campaign while authorities clamp down on anyone reporting abuses, Colonel Assimi Goïta s military regime is responding to mounting allegations of human rights violations by the national army and Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Group by lashing out at reporters of the abuses. It is becoming increasingly clear that the culture of impunity within the national army, the Forces Armées Maliennes (FAMA), is not an unfortunate mistake, but a deliberate choice by the junta to pursue a scorched earth policy in its campaign against jihadist insurgents.