NM's blog

The World Bank and IMF “maintain similar political economic orientation, including in compelling regional countries to apply the same policies that were at the root causes for the uprisings and even deepening them. They indeed still argue that large sectors of the economy are in need of privatisation, in favour of trade liberalisation and more favourable regulations to attract foreign investment, austerity measures, including halting subsidies… This is no different in Syria today .”

Excerpts The coup in August 2020 was welcomed by a population tired of the corruption and incompetence of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s government.  But the new regime grew increasingly hardline and eventually banned political parties in May 2025. Most opposition figures are now in exile, notably the imam Mahmoud Dicko, who leads from Algiers the Coalition of Forces for the Republic, set up in December 2025, and the communist Oumar Mariko, president of the now dissolved African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence party, who tried unsuccessfully to mediate with JNIM to secure the release of 17 hostages in March 2026. Even so, the regime still retains some popular support. ‘The jihadists have failed to stir up the population as they’d hoped,’ says Senegalese journalist Abdou Khadre Cissé. Spending on military equipment and security is draining state finances, prompting new taxes on mobile phone top-ups and money transfers via phone. In jihadist-dominated areas, people endure rackete...