Mali: The Descent into Hell Under the Military Junta – Findings, Evidence, and a Call for International Action

Preamble

Since the military coup of August 18, 2020, followed by a second in May 2021, Mali has been experiencing an unprecedented, multifaceted crisis. OMSAC (Global Security Organization Against Corruption and Crime), through its Integrity & Investigations Department, its partner experts, and in cooperation with several national whistleblowers, has been closely monitoring the situation. Today, it is imperative to break the silence, expose the truth, and demand an immediate response from the international community.

I. An Illegitimate and Authoritarian Military Power

The military junta, led by Colonel Assimi Goïta, has entrenched itself in power, blatantly disregarding commitments made to ECOWAS and the international community. The democratic process is frozen, freedoms are suppressed, and the country is sinking into a spiral of repression:

• Suspension of the Constitution.

• Dissolution of legislative and judicial bodies.

• Crackdown on media, unions, and opinion leaders.

• Arbitrary arrests and intimidation.

  
  

II. Widespread Insecurity and Territorial Chaos

One of the stated justifications for the coup was to restore security. However, the facts show the opposite:

• Expansion of terrorist armed groups, especially in central and northern Mali.

• Massacres of civilians, interethnic conflicts, and near-total impunity.

• Absence of the state in entire regions, now controlled by militias or Islamist factions.

• Total failure of the Russian (Wagner) security approach, which has worsened violence, including through documented extrajudicial operations.

  
  

III. Surge in Corruption and Embezzlement

Despite the official anti-corruption rhetoric, the junta has opened the door to an opaque mafia-style system, continuing (and sometimes cooperating with) practices of former regimes:

• Documented cases of embezzlement of public funds in arms procurement, customs operations, and public contracts.

• Use of state resources to enrich a narrow military elite.

• Ongoing OMSAC investigations into illicit assets: properties abroad, shell companies, offshore accounts linked to both former and current regime dignitaries.

  
  

IV. Poverty, Isolation, and the Suffering of the Malian People

The Population Pays the High Price of This Authoritarian Drift

• Explosion of poverty: mass unemployment, inflation, and food insecurity.

• Drastic reduction in international aid.

• Brain drain, youth exile, and growing despair.

• Health and education systems in ruins.

  
  

V. The Malian State, Taken Hostage

Mali is no longer governed — it has been hijacked:

• By a military junta with no popular legitimacy.

• By networks of corruption and smuggling.

• By fear, propaganda, and violence.

  
  

VI. OMSAC’s Recommendations

OMSAC calls on the United Nations, the Security Council, the African Union, ECOWAS, and all democratic states to:

• Make any cooperation with the junta conditional on an immediate return to a credible and supervised electoral timeline.

• Send an international investigative mission on human rights violations and economic crimes.

• Freeze assets identified as illicit gains linked to the junta or former regimes, in partner jurisdictions.

• Protect Malian whistleblowers and support independent civil society.

• Initiate a regional and inclusive dialogue to rebuild the foundations of the Malian state with its people.

  
  

VII. Conclusion

The Malian people deserve neither misery nor dictatorship. The military junta has betrayed all its promises. It must be held accountable. Silence and inaction are no longer options.

OMSAC will continue, alongside its partners, to document, expose, and act. Justice, transparency, and popular sovereignty must once again become the pillars of Mali.

OMSAC – Integrity & Investigations Department