About 400 miles northeast of Bamako, the city of Mopti was also attacked by forces linked to al-Qaida and Tuareg separatists. Now, Malian civil society leaders have gathered there and heard the regional governor, Daouda Dembélé, assure them that “Mopti will remain strong and a bastion.”

Among the various demonstrations in support of Mali’s independence and sovereignty was, 265 miles east of Bamako, a large rally in the center of the city of San, in the region bordering Burkina Faso. Speaking to the participants — young people, leaders of women’s organizations and religious and traditional leaders — Félicité Diara, the president of the urban commune of San, paid tribute to the military personnel and civilians who fell in April and reaffirmed the region’s people’s support for the government led by Assimi Goïta.

Mali, along with Burkina Faso and Niger, is a member of the Alliance of Sahel States, and in recent years they have expelled French and American troops from their territories, banned foreign military bases and withdrawn from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has been accused of defending France’s neo-colonial interests.

Bamako, Ouagadougou [Burkina Faso] and Niamey [Niger] also accuse Paris — and more recently, Kiev [Ukraine] — of financing, training and arming terrorist and separatist groups in the Sahel (some of them even equipped with Ukrainian drones), seeking to prevent the peaceful development of countries that “dare” free themselves from neocolonial ties and choose their own future.

While acknowledging the complex current situation in Mali, President Assimi Goïta assures that “no violence, no intimidation, much less desperate attempts at destabilization” will reverse the progress the country has made. And he assures the Malian people that “sovereignty will be consolidated.”