Mali’s fuel blockade reaches beyond the petrol queue
School closures and electricity dependence show how attacks on fuel deliveries disrupt public services.
Independent analysis of power, conflict and resources across the Sahel.
LATEST RESEARCH · Assessment
Mali’s troops needed air support. Then JNIM targeted the airfield
The disaster at Dioura and shelling at Sévaré expose a harder test for Mali’s Russian partnership: keeping isolated troops within reach of help.
Read the latest articleTHE RESEARCH DESK
More from the research desk
What a seizure map cannot prove
An illustrative calculation shows why a rise in seizures cannot, by itself, measure growth in trafficking.
Barrick’s Mali mine: what a 16% discount rate means
A quarterly operating margin and a long-term valuation rate answer different questions about Loulo-Gounkoto.
Sahel mining: five changes in the August filings
A permit, a minority investment and a delayed uranium timetable replace parts of the July picture.
Mali’s civilian-harm record demands scrutiny of state forces
ACLED’s 2025 figures and survivor reporting put Malian forces and their Russian partners under scrutiny alongside jihadist groups.
Mali’s displacement reaches Mauritania’s public services
Dated population records and a health-service account show why the response must include the communities where refugees live.
RESEARCH AREAS
Three ways into the region
01 / SECURITY
Power & political order
Military partnerships, armed groups and the institutions shaping civilian life.
Read the Mali assessment ↗ 02 / RESOURCESExtraction & public value
Who controls gold, uranium and oil—and what citizens receive in return.
Read the resource paper ↗ 03 / MOVEMENTBorders & displacement
Road access, refugee protection and the costs of conflict across borders.
Read the Mauritania assessment ↗ABOUT SAHEL FUTURES
Independent work.
Open to scrutiny.
Founded and edited by Daniel Spurr in Toronto, Sahel Futures examines the region through public documents, datasets and attributed reporting.
About the project →