Mali is currently facing numerous armed conflicts throughout its vast territory. Violence between herders and farmers in the country’s central regions continues to escalate, taking on an increasingly ethnic tone. Mali has faced severe political instability in recent years, including a coup in August 2020, shortly followed by an additional coup in May 2021. Learn about the grievances that continue to drive ongoing conflict in Mali in our assessment of early warning signs of mass atrocities, published in 2018 but still relevant today.
Our December 2025 report analyzes the targeting of civilians across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. In recent years, Islamist armed groups and pro-government forces in the Sahel region of Africa have escalated mass atrocities. The report describes scenarios that could trigger further escalation of mass atrocities and provides recommendations for policy makers in the region, multilateral organizations, and the United States to protect communities.
PDF DownloadOur quantitative assessment, from the Early Warning Project, estimates the risk of a new mass killing in Mali.
Dangerous speech can be an early warning sign for violence. Our 2018 research report analyzes data from two villages in the Mopti region of central Mali.
Report PDFThe Simon-Skjodt Center’s research, published in 2018 but still relevant today, aimed to identify the scenarios in which Mali could plausibly experience large-scale, systematic attacks on civilians.
Learn about the work of Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, a PhD candidate in Political Science and a research associate with the Sahel Research Group at the University of Florida.