'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 assessment, framing recent attacks within a broader crisis of governance. The junta is struggling to project control while relying on an increasingly compromised external partner. Russia must now demonstrate it is “actually of any use.” All the while, the alliance between Tuareg separatists and jihadist forces is described as purely “tactical: they can’t agree on anything beyond getting rid of the government.”