Today, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) published a Country of Origin Information (COI) Country Focus Report on Mali. The report provides an overview on selected topics on Mali, relevant for the international protection status determination of Malian applicants. In the last three years, nearly 29 000 Malian applications were registered in the EU+ countries. 

The EASO COI Country Focus report on Mali provides general background information on Mali, namely on geography, population, ethnic and religious groups, political and the judicial systems, together with a brief overview of the security situation in the north and central areas of the country serving as background for the focus on the security situation in the southern regions of Mali (Kayes, Koulikoro, Ségou and Sikasso). 

The EASO COI Mali Country Focus report was drafted by COI researchers from France - Office Français de Protection des Réfugiés et Apatrides (OFPRA), Division de l'Information, de la Documentation et des Recherches (DIDR) and Italy – Ministry of Interior, Italian National Commission for the Right of Asylum, International and EU Affairs, COI Unit. 

The report was reviewed by EASO and COI researchers from national asylum authorities represented in EASO’s West-Africa COI Network: Denmark - Danish Immigration Service, Section Country of Origin Information, Luxembourg - Ministère des Affaires étrangères et européennes, Direction de l’Immigration, Service Réfugiés, Norway – Lanfinfo, and The Netherlands - Immigration and Naturalisation Service, Office for Country of Origin Information and Language Analysis (OCILA). In addition, an external review was carried out by Dr Bruce Whitehouse, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Global Studies Program in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of Lehigh University, PA, researcher, and author of numerous publications on Mali and the region. 

This report was drafted and reviewed in accordance with EASO’s COI Report Methodology and mandate. In line with this methodology, country information from a wide variety of sources is provided, while refraining from making any assessments or policy conclusions.