The advisory notes that “for several weeks, the security situation has been deteriorating in Mali, including in Bamako.”

It highlights that travel by land is not recommended, because national roads are being targeted by attacks from jihadist or extremist groups.

The French government repeated its strong recommendation against travel to Mali for any reason.

The advisory comes as the Jama’at Nusrat al‑Islam wa al‑Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-linked group, has imposed a fuel-blockade on tanker convoys entering Mali, threatening the supply of fuel, food, electricity and closing schools in Bamako.

The fuel blockade and escalating attacks by JNIM have contributed to growing fears that Mali’s military junta-run government may be losing control over its territory and the capital’s supply lines.

The advisory signals a significant concern by France over the security environment in Mali and the potential for further escalation of Islamist-linked insurgency.

While the statement does not explicitly say that Islamist groups are “taking over” the country, it implies that the risk of their gaining more influence is serious enough to merit evacuation advice.

There has been no publicly detailed reaction from Mali’s government to the French statement in the sources available.

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The army’s death toll differed from a local official’s account of the incident, which said that upto 56 bodies were recorded at the hospital in Gao, and that there was also an unknown number of military casualties.

The attackers struck near the village of Kobe, around 30 km (19 miles) from Gao in a region where groups linked to Islamic State and Al Qaeda have been active for over a decade, destabilising Mali and its neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger.

The army said in a statement that at least 19 assailants were killed when soldiers retaliated and pushed them back. It did not mention military casualties.

The insurgencies took root in Mali’s arid north following a Tuareg separatist rebellion in 2012. The Islamist militants have since spread to other countries in the impoverished central Sahel region south of the Sahara.

Deadly attacks have become so frequent that the military organises near-daily escorts, a Gao resident said.

The violence has killed thousands of people, displaced millions, and spurred a string of military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger between 2020 and 2023.

(Reuters).

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Spain’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that a Spanish man had been kidnapped in North Africa.

El Pais newspaper reported that the man was kidnapped in southern Algeria by an Islamist group and taken to Mali, though the Foreign Ministry did not confirm that information.

In a post on X, one of the leaders of the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) said a Spanish national named Gilbert Navarro “kidnapped in Algeria a few days ago” and transported by his captors to north Mali had been freed by FLA forces on Monday.

The former hostage would be protectively spending the night with the FLA before being transferred to Algerian authorities, said Attaye Ag Mohamed, who also acts as a spokesman for the group.

Another FLA spokesman, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, said on X that the FLA had freed Navarro, who was in good health, and that more details would follow.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Spain is in a dispute between Morocco and Algeria over the Western Sahara, which was controlled by Spain until 1975 and is now claimed by Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks its independence.

Reuters.

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