Thousands of Malians demonstrate in support of the government’s fight against terror groups

Pavan Kulkarni

13 May 2026

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A thousand people gathered in Bamako this weekend to support the popular military government. Photo: screenshot

Two weeks before, the armed forces had fought off the highly coordinated attacks on six cities by about 12,000 jihadist and separatist fighters on April 25.

Originally published in People's Dispatch.

On May 9, thousands of Malians in various cities mobilized to express their support for the national armed forces and the sovereigntist popular military government defending the country from attacks by multiple foreign-backed terror groups.

In the capital, Bamako – one of the six cities attacked on April 25 – citizens packed the Mamadou Konaté Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 5,500, to attend a gathering themed “For a Mali standing tall, united, at peace and secure”.

Addressing the gathering, Ibrahim Cissé, president of the National Youth Council of Mali (CNJ), called on the young Malians to join the armed forces in ever greater numbers in the fight against terror groups, insisting, “We refuse to be a youth of spectators.”

Speaking on behalf of Malian women, “We are all soldiers,” declared Kouyaté Sissoko, representative of the Coordination of Women’s Associations and NGOs of Mali (CAFO).

Describing the attack on April 25 as “cowardly”, government spokesperson and Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation Brigadier General Issa Coulibaly said that “the Malian people have shown that they will not yield to fear or manipulation.”

About 650 km northeast of Bamako, the city of Mopti was also attacked, along with four other cities across the country, in a coordinated offensive by about 12,000 fighters of the Al-Qaeda affiliate, the JNIM, and a northern Tuareg separatist group, the MNLA.

Just over two weeks later, civil society leaders gathered at Mopti’s governorate building on May 9. Addressing them, regional governor Brigadier General Daouda Dembélé assured that, “Mopti will remain strong and a bulwark”.

Among the other demonstrations of support was the large public meeting, about 425 kilometers east of Bamako, at the Independence Square in the town of San, the administrative capital of the San region on the border with Burkina Faso.

In her address to the gathering of youth, women leaders, and religious and traditional leaders, the mayor of the urban commune of San, Félicité Diarra, reiterated the support of the region’s people to the government, led by President Assimi Goïta.

She also paid tribute to the civilians and soldiers killed on April 25, including Defense Minister Sadio Camara, a lieutenant general posthumously elevated to General’s rank after he fell in battle. “We do not mourn our heroes, we celebrate them,” Coulibaly affirmed in an address, back in Bamako.

Mali

France

terrorism

Alliance of Sahel States

AES

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