The goal of the jihadists of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM, affiliated with Al-Qaeda), who are suffocating the Malian economy with a blockade on fuel, is "the fall of the junta" in order to install "a caliphate", the head of French foreign intelligence services said on Monday.

"The intelligence we have shows that JNIM (affiliated with Al-Qaeda) is not necessarily capable, nor does it have the will (...) to control the country, to control Mali, also aware of its limitations. On the other hand, everything suggests that JNIM wants the fall of the junta and wants the installation of a power that is indeed favorable to the installation of a caliphate on all or part of the Malian territory," said the head of the French DGSE (General Directorate for External Security), Nicolas Lerner, on France Inter radio.

For several weeks, JNIM jihadists have been suffocating several regions of Mali, imposing a blockade of fuel imports as far as Bamako by attacking convoys, strangling the economy of the landlocked Sahelian country and weakening the ruling junta.

Since the end of the French military presence in the country in 2022, Mali has put in place "an alternative security model, notably provided by the Russians, which is now largely failing," Mr. Lerner observed.

France on Friday recommended that its citizens leave Mali temporarily "as soon as possible," highlighting the deteriorating security situation. The previous week, the United States and the United Kingdom had announced the evacuation of their "non-essential" personnel and their families.

More broadly, given the situation in the Sahel, Central Africa and the Horn of Africa, the African continent has "become the epicenter of jihadism" globally, both in terms of the number of attacks and victims, the director of the DGSE recalled.

"A very large number of leaders of terrorist organizations who previously came from Arab countries are now African leaders," he stressed.

"Africa is now the epicenter of terrorism and directly threatens our interests," he insisted.

"Allowing terrorist groups to establish themselves, allowing sanctuaries to be created, has always in the recent history of our countries subsequently led to planned attacks. So we must necessarily be very attentive," he explained, as France commemorates this week the tenth anniversary of the bloody attacks of November 13, 2015 in the Paris region (130 dead, hundreds injured).