Islamist militants controlling most of northern Mali since April claimed Thursday that they have seized control of the central city of Konna after advancing further into government-controlled territory in the south of the country.
Konna, some 435 miles northeast of the capital Bamako, is strategically located between the rebel-held desert north and the government-controlled greener and more populated south. It is just just 45 miles from the government-held strategic port city of Mopti along the Niger River.
A spokesman for Ansar Dine, one of the three Islamist groups currently controlling northern Mali, said Thursday that the groups fighters have taken control of Konna after driving out the government forces. Mali's military is yet to respond to those claims.
Incidentally, Mali's military had claimed a day earlier its forces had made significant advances towards the central town of Douentza held by another Islamist militant group known as the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). But local residents say that Douentza is still under MUJAO's control.
Islamist militants and Mali's Tuareg rebels had captured most of the country's northern region amidst the chaos triggered by a military coup. But their alliance quickly collapsed after the Islamists marginalized the Tuareg rebels and consolidated their positions in the urban areas in the north.
The main Islamist militant groups, namely the Ansar Dine, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the MUJAO, have since established themselves in northern Mali and are enforcing Islamic law across the region. The conflict has forced more than 400,000 people to flee northern Mali.
The latest developments comes just three weeks after the UN Security Council gave an initial one-year mandate to an African-led military mission in Mali, and authorized the intervention force to use "all necessary measures, in compliance with applicable international humanitarian law and human rights law," to help Mali retake its northern regions from "terrorist, extremist and armed groups."
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has readied a 3,300-strong African intervention force, to be known as AFISMA, for deployment in Mali for ousting the Islamist militants from the country's north.
But the deployment of such a force in Mali is not expected to take place before September 2013. In the meantime, the West African grouping is attempting to find a solution to the conflict. Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore has been acting as the top ECOWAS mediator for resolving the Mali crisis.
Compaore succeeded in convincing the Islamist Ansar Dine and the Tuareg Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) to open direct talks with Mali's government in December. Although the two rebel groups and Mali's government agreed during those talks to "observe a cessation of hostilities" during those talks, the Ansar Dine ended its ceasefire last week citing the planned military intervention.
The next round of mediated negotiations were originally scheduled to be held in Burkina Faso on Thursday, but they have now been postponed until January 21. Notably, Compaore has already expressed doubts about the prospects of future talks in wake of the current situation.
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December 19, 2025 15:10 ET U.S. inflation data and interest rate decisions by major central banks were the highlights of this busy week for economics news flow. Employment data and survey results on the housing markets also gained attention in the U.S. In Europe, the European Central Bank and Bank of England announced their policy decisions and macroeconomic projections.