As the West African country of Mali teeters on the verge of becoming the first country on the continent to be ruled by an al-Qaeda-linked terror group, a U.S. State Department spokesman is warning U.S. citizens to leave or not travel there.
Regarding the situation in Mali, the spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “do not travel for any reason due to crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest and health risks,” while warning that “U.S. citizens should avoid traveling to Mali and those currently in Mali should leave immediately.”
The U.S. Embassy in Mali also posted on its website that “U.S. citizens should use commercial air to depart the country as land travel to neighboring countries may be unsafe due to terrorist attacks along the nation’s highways.”
It also warned Americans not to attempt travel outside the capital. “The U.S. Embassy in Bamako is rarely able to provide emergency services or support to U.S. citizens outside the capital,” noting that the information remained relevant as of Monday.
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A panoramic view of Modibo Keita International Airport in Bamako, Mali, as the U.S. State Department warned Americans to avoid the country and urged those already there to leave amid rising terror threats, blocked air routes and worsening insecurity, officials said.
A former senior military official with detailed knowledge of the situation told Fox News Digital that the situation in Mali is “increasingly likely” to pose a threat to the U.S. homeland.
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Islamic Movement fighters surrounded the capital Bamako, preventing oil tankers from reaching the city and setting some vehicles on fire. The Malian army tried to break the blockade by sending armed convoys of trucks, but JNIM attacked several of the trucks.
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Kenneth P. Ekman told Fox News Digital that he believed Mali’s success in blocking JNIM was very important to Washington. Ekman was a key figure in U.S. forces in Mali, Niger and other Sahel countries, serving as head of the Department of Defense’s West Africa coordination component for U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) until his retirement earlier this year.
“The United States still has security interests in West Africa,” he said. “Given the paucity of remaining U.S. forces and intelligence assets in the region, external operational threats to the U.S. homeland are intolerable and increasingly more likely and harder to detect.”
“This threat also affects the security of U.S. diplomats and their families in Bamako, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Niamey (Niger) and other West African countries,” he continued.
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A year ago, the military junta that controls Mali demanded that U.S. and French troops leave the country, bringing in Russian Wagner/Afrika Korps mercenaries — the Kremlin’s private army. The Russians were reportedly more interested in mining the region’s minerals, but Mariam Wahba told Fox News Digital that the Russians were not “very helpful.” Waba is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
“Both Bamako and Ouagadougou are at risk,” Ekman said of the risk of an al-Qaeda-linked group taking over Mali’s capital.
He continued, “JNIM appears to be gathering momentum, with expanded goals and greater resolve.”
Geese are seen walking on the road as a truck crosses the border between Côte d’Ivoire and Mali in the village of Niguen near Tengrela on October 31, 2025. In northern Côte d’Ivoire, truckers prepare to return to neighboring Mali with tankers laden with fuel and anxiety. One acronym strikes fear into the hearts of all truckers: JNIM, the name of the jihadist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, which two months ago decreed that no tanker trucks would be allowed to enter Mali from neighboring countries.
“The United States (under the Biden administration) has also chosen to abandon keeping these forces in the region during and after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Niger in 2024,” the former major general added. “As a result, the United States has given up its ability to monitor and respond to the activity and growth of terrorist groups in the Sahel, provide assistance to threatened U.S. embassies, and resolve crises such as the kidnapping of an American missionary in October.”
The missionary, a pilot, was kidnapped in Niger on October 21 and has not been heard from since.
JNIM has been designated by the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).
“The Malian army is fighting an irregular and asymmetric enemy,” Wahba said. “Ultimately, they are jihadists, and it is difficult for the government to predict them,” he added. “If this continues, Bamako could fall within days or weeks.”
Mali’s battle with the Al Qaeda terror group is on the government’s threat radar. Last month, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau flew to Bamako and posted on X that he met with the junta’s foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, “to discuss our mutual security interests in the region.”
Caleb Weiss, senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation and editor of FDD’s Long War magazine, told Fox Digital News that he is worried about terrorists in Mali enforcing strict Sharia law, and JNIM said, “Al Qaeda’s branch in West Africa is exerting tremendous economic and social pressure on Bamako, possibly in the hope that the military junta there will somehow back down.”
Weiss continued, “The Bamako regime was absolutely stretched thin and its allies in the Russian Wagner/Afrika Korps proved ineffective.”
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He said: “JNIM is also consolidating its position in other areas of Mali where they are allowed to enforce Sharia law in order to end blockades, sieges or general violence. This is probably what they are seeking in Bamako as well. It is unlikely that JNIM will accept anything other than a Mali that strictly interprets Sharia law.”
Ekman said the situation could be different: “Whatever access and relationships other U.S. government agencies are able to establish in countries like Mali may not achieve what the U.S. could achieve by reallocating its military capabilities as it withdraws from Niger.”
Original source of the article: ‘Leave now’: State Department warns Americans as al-Qaeda threatens to take over African country
