In a troubling escalation of violence, terrorist groups in Mali have begun targeting industrial facilities, crippling production and threatening the country’s fragile economy.
Several factories across the nation have already fallen victim to these attacks, prompting sharp increases in prices and widespread unemployment among laborers.
One of the most notable incidents occurred in the Kayes region, where armed men attacked a major cement factory.
The fallout has been swift and severe: the price of a ton of cement has surged to between 120,000 and 135,000 CFA francs, sparking alarm among construction workers and contractors in Bamako and beyond.
“The increase in the price of cement has caused us enormous problems. Because when we talk about masonry, we talk about cement. We masonry workers can’t work without cement.
Even our current projects have been halted because of the increase in the price of cement,” said Drissa Sangaré, a mason based in the capital.
According to Sangaré, the price hike is not just halting projects—it’s pushing families into hardship. “There are masons who have been unemployed for one or two months.
A head of family doing one or two months, it’s not a pretty sight,” he lamented. “We masons, we want the government to do something.”
Adding to the country’s woes, two sugar factories in the Ségou region were also recently targeted by armed groups. These coordinated attacks suggest a deliberate strategy to undermine Mali’s economic backbone, says economist Modibo Mao Makalou.
“The destruction of the industrial fabric and the road networks of our country is seriously hampering economic activity. I think that is the objective of this economic terrorism, that is to say, to suffocate our country, to prevent economic activity, to prevent citizens from going about their business, from earning their living,” Makalou warned.
A former presidential adviser, Makalou called for a united national response. “We must continue to communicate, to raise awareness, to strengthen human intelligence. I think that from this point of view, many things can be prevented, in any case these acts of economic sabotage,” he concluded.
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