'Damage control mode': Reputations of Mali junta & Russian mercenaries 'hang in balance'

Nadia Massih is pleased to welcome Ulf Laessing, Director of Regional Sahel Programme at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Mr Laessing offers a stark, ground-level assessment of Mali’s rapidly deteriorating security landscape, framing recent attacks within a broader crisis of governance, fragile alliances, and geopolitical repositioning. Speaking from his vantage point at the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, our guest paints a picture of a state struggling to project control while relying on an increasingly compromised external partner. Rather than presenting a coherent counterinsurgency strategy, the Malian authorities appear, in his words, to be “in damage control mode,” attempting to “give a sense of normalcy” amid mounting uncertainty.

This fragile equilibrium is further complicated by a convergence of armed actors whose cooperation is less ideological than opportunistic. The alliance between Tuareg separatists and jihadist forces is described as “very tactical,” one that “can’t agree on anything beyond getting rid of the government.” All the while, Russia must now demonstrate it is “actually of any use.”