GENOCIDE        WATCH

Mali plunged into crisis in 2012, when Tuareg rebels launched an insurgency in the north of the country. The resulting instability enabled the growth of Islamic groups which rapidly expanded into Central Mali. Since 2015, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the JNIM-affiliated and majoritarly Fulani Katiba Macina, and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) are the main Jihadist groups active in the country. From 2019, violence against civilians along ethnic and inter-communal lines has escalated in Central Mali. Malian security forces, self-defence ethnic militias, and Islamic militant groups all participate in the spiraling of genocidal violence.