BAMAKO: Mali’s government refuses to talk to “terrorist” groups, the foreign minister has said, after militants and allied separatists mounted widespread attacks that have rocked the ruling junta.

The coordinated deadly offensive by Al Qaeda-linked fighters and Tuareg separatists on April 25 and 26 targeted strategic towns and killed the country’s defence minister, while the two groups have since imposed a blockade on the capital Bamako.

“The government of Mali does not envisage any dialogue with the lawless terrorist armed groups that bear responsibility for the tragic events our people have been experiencing for years,” Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said, meeting the country’s diplomats on Thursday.

The junta-led west African country has grappled with more than a decade of violence and last month’s attacks were reminiscent of a crisis that rocked Mali in 2012.

Under an alliance forged a year ago, Tuareg rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front teamed up with the Al Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims to launch the latest assaults.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026