ACMAT Bastion
Armoured personnel carrier- Role
- Wheeled armoured personnel carrier of the army’s convoy and intervention units — protection against the war’s defining threat, the roadside bomb.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali
Conflict Module · Sahel
Faction & Force Atlas
A structured catalogue of major publicly documented forces, formations, and equipment — cross-linked, sourced, and deliberately non-operational.
Context, not targeting. This atlas describes structure and history. It deliberately excludes current locations, live strength, unit movements, and anything operationally sensitive — the content model has no fields for them. See the methodology.
01
Force Structure
Structural · historical · non-operationalGovernment & allied forces
Azawad movements
JNIM & lineage
Islamic State Sahel
International & regional (historical)
02
Equipment Library
Major publicly documented systems · full profiles and structured recordsReviewed profiles of major publicly documented systems — the ones unit profiles and key events link to, each with a permanent page. The full structured catalogue, including the stub index, lives at Equipment.
Bayraktar Akıncı
Strike UAV / loitering munition- Role
- Heavy Turkish strike drone — a step up from the TB2 in payload and reach, and the aircraft whose loss to Algerian air defence ruptured Mali–Algeria relations.
- Origin
- Türkiye
- Also appears in
- Mali
Bayraktar TB2
Strike UAV / loitering munition- Role
- The early-war icon whose strike role faded as Russian air defence coalesced — a case study in how fast adaptation cycles run in this war.
- Origin
- Türkiye
- Also appears in
- Russia–Ukraine · Mali · Nagorno-Karabakh · Libya · Syria
BM-21 Grad
Rocket artillery- Role
- Truck-mounted rocket artillery in small numbers — area fires with all the accuracy problems that implies in a war among civilians.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Mali
BRDM-2
Reconnaissance vehicle- Role
- A Soviet amphibious scout car of 1960s design — long out of production, still in service across multiple wars from refurbished stock.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Russia–Ukraine · Mali
BTR-80
Armoured personnel carrier- Role
- The standard Soviet-pattern eight-wheeled armoured personnel carrier — mobile, lightly protected, and still the default troop carrier of the armies that inherited or bought it.
- Origin
- Soviet Union / Russia
- Also appears in
- Russia–Ukraine · Mali
Casspir MPV
Protected mobility / MRAP- Role
- Mine-protected vehicles of MINUSMA contingents — the shape of a mission that fought, above all, the roadside bomb.
- Origin
- South Africa
- Also appears in
- Mali (MINUSMA, historical)
Cessna 208 Caravan (ISR)
AEW&C / ISR aircraft- Role
- US-donated light surveillance aircraft from the pre-coup partnership era; current serviceability unclear.
- Origin
- United States
- Also appears in
- Mali
Commercial drones (armed-group use)
Reconnaissance UAV- Role
- Commercial quadcopters for reconnaissance, propaganda filming and, increasingly, improvised attack — the Ukraine playbook arriving in the Sahel at village scale.
- Origin
- Various (commercial)
- Also appears in
- Mali · the wider Sahel
D-30 122mm howitzer
Artillery- Role
- The ubiquitous Soviet 122mm towed howitzer — simple, cheap and exported everywhere; the baseline of tube artillery in most armies that field it.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Russia–Ukraine · Mali
IEDs (capability record)
IED / explosive threat · capability record- Role
- A capability-level record only: roadside and vehicle-borne bombs are the instrument that made Mali’s roads the front line. This record deliberately contains no technical detail.
- Origin
- Improvised (in-theatre)
- Also appears in
- Mali · the wider Sahel
L-39 Albatros
Combat aircraft- Role
- Jet trainers pressed into light-attack service, part of the 2022 Russian delivery packages.
- Origin
- Czechoslovakia
- Also appears in
- Mali
Mi-24/Mi-35 Hind
Helicopter- Role
- The Soviet gunship that outlived its era — armour, heavy firepower and a troop bay, flown in escort and fire-support roles decades after its designers expected.
- Origin
- Soviet Union / Russia
- Also appears in
- Russia–Ukraine · Mali
Mi-8/Mi-17 Hip
Helicopter- Role
- The most widely used military helicopter ever built — assault transport, resupply and medevac, and the only way into places roads cannot safely reach.
- Origin
- Soviet Union / Russia
- Also appears in
- Russia–Ukraine · Mali
MiG-21
Combat aircraft- Role
- The Soviet-era fighter fleet of Mali’s Cold War alignment — long inoperable, a reminder that the Russian relationship is a return, not a novelty.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Mali (historical)
Mirage 2000D
Combat aircraft- Role
- The strike aircraft of Serval and Barkhane — precision air power that the post-French order has not replaced.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali (Serval / Barkhane, historical)
Motorcycles (insurgent mobility)
Light mobility- Role
- Two fighters, one rifle, one motorcycle: the insurgency’s unit of manoeuvre, and the capability government motorcycle bans have tried and failed to suppress.
- Origin
- Various (commercial)
- Also appears in
- Mali · the wider Sahel
NH90
Helicopter- Role
- European transport helicopters that gave MINUSMA its medevac and mobility edge — capabilities that left with them.
- Origin
- France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands
- Also appears in
- Mali (MINUSMA, historical)
SA342 Gazelle
Helicopter- Role
- Light attack helicopters of the opening intervention — one crew took the first French loss of Serval in January 2013.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali (Serval, historical)
Su-25
Combat aircraft- Role
- The Soviet “flying tank” — a rugged, heavily armoured close-support jet built to operate low, from rough fields, and absorb hits.
- Origin
- Soviet Union / Russia
- Also appears in
- Russia–Ukraine · Mali
Technicals (armed pickups)
Light mobility- Role
- The pickup truck with a heavy weapon is the true main combat system of the Sahel war — on every side.
- Origin
- Various (commercial chassis)
- Also appears in
- Mali · the wider Sahel
Tigre attack helicopter
Helicopter- Role
- Barkhane’s attack helicopter — escort and strike across the Liptako until the 2022 withdrawal.
- Origin
- France, Germany, Spain
- Also appears in
- Mali / Sahel (Barkhane, historical)
VAB
Armoured personnel carrier- Role
- The French infantry’s wheeled workhorse throughout Serval and Barkhane.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali (Serval / Barkhane, historical)
VBCI
Infantry fighting vehicle- Role
- Wheeled infantry fighting vehicles that gave the French intervention its protected punch on the long desert axes.
- Origin
- France
- Also appears in
- Mali (Serval / Barkhane, historical)
ZU-23-2
Air defence- Role
- Twin 23mm cannon — nominally anti-air, in practice the heaviest direct-fire weapon on both sides’ gun trucks.
- Origin
- Soviet Union
- Also appears in
- Mali