A British soldier leaves the Hombori area aboard a Chinook helicopter on March 28, 2019 during the start of the French Barkhane Force operation in Mali's Gourma region.
By David Newman, RANE Global Security Analyst Growing insecurity in Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria is forcing littoral West African nations to reckon with a rising jihadist threat to their territories, but their military-led approach is unlikely to be successful absent broader improvements to governance, economic development and regional coordination. Mali and Burkina Faso have faced worse deterioration in their security environments than has Nigeria. After the junta seized power in May 2021, Mali has grown increasingly alienated from the international community, as evidenced by France's recently completed withdrawal from the country in August 2022; the EU suspension of elements of its training mission in April 2022; Mali's withdrawal from the Group of Five (G5) Sahel in May 2022; and its ongoing tense relationship with the U.N. peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA, short for the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali).
