The war moves to central Mali

What happened

Katiba Macina embeds the insurgency in the Mopti and Ségou regions, recruiting on local grievance and pastoralist marginalisation; the centre overtakes the north as the war's deadliest theatre.

Central Mali proved the insurgency was not a northern or Tuareg phenomenon but a state-absence phenomenon — and put it astride the river, the roads and the food systems the whole country depends on.

Confidence: High