In Mali, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM) have been carrying out attacks on foreign industrial sites, particularly Chinese ones, for several weeks now, as a tactic to weaken the ruling junta.

After threatening to strike foreign industries in June, the group, affiliated with Al-Qaeda, attacked seven foreign industrial sites in Mali, including six Chinese ones, according to the American Enterprise Institute.

The objective: "to force foreign companies" to pay taxes in exchange for their security and "delegitimize the Malian government," analyzes this Washington-based institute.

In August, the deadly raids by the GSIM in the gold-mining region of Kayes (west) intensified and affected industries in the center of the country "for the first time," one of its analysts, Liam Karr, told AFP, with Chinese sugar factories targeted near Ségou (center).

Days later, a guard was killed during an assault on a British-operated lithium mine in Bougouni, in the south.

"These are not grievances against the Chinese, but rather the group's logic of striking a blow to the Malian economy," explains Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Institute think tank in Dakar.

"Kayes is of strategic value to the GSIM. The region accounts for approximately 80% of Mali's gold production and serves as a trade corridor to Senegal," the country's leading supplier, adds the Soufan Center think tank.

"11 Chinese citizens" kidnapped

In fact, according to the UN, GSIM is the "most significant threat in the Sahel."

In early September, he imposed a blockade on the Kayes region and the Nioro region, which borders Mauritania, to prevent the entry of imported fuel, particularly from Senegal and Ivory Coast, and threatened traders with burning their tanks or killing the drivers.

"The group's main ambition remains to create an emirate capable of challenging the legitimacy of military regimes, forcing them to cede their authority and applying Sharia law," a UN report published in July stated.

At least "11 Chinese citizens" were kidnapped in these attacks, mainly in the Kayes region, Mr. Karr said.

China has not confirmed this number, but its embassy in Bamako "maintains close contact with the Malian government" and "will not give up any effort to search for and rescue the kidnapped individuals," according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Chinese diplomacy added that it had taken "measures to ensure the safety" of its citizens in Mali.

The GSIM is also suspected of the kidnapping of three Indian cement factory employees in early July during an armed attack in the west.

This GSIM offensive "risks undermining Mali's trade ties" with China, "one of its largest economic partners," warns the American Enterprise Institute.

However, Chinese private investments in Mali totaled $1.6 billion between 2009 and 2024, and the Chinese government has invested $1.8 billion in 137 projects since 2000, he calculated.

Beijing is more than ever one of Bamako's key partners since a military junta came to power following two coups in 2020 and 2021.

The regime, which pursues a sovereignist policy and has turned its back on the former French colonial power, has also moved closer to Turkey and Russia.

The Russian private security company Wagner, now Africa Corps, Chinese armored vehicles, and Turkish drones are helping Mali fight GSIM and the Islamic State in the Sahel.

"Russia is willing to be a destabilizing factor to strengthen its influence, which is at odds with China's interest in seeking stability for its commercial interests," observes Liam Karr.

The GSIM attacks come at a time when the Malian junta is itself trying to strengthen its control over mining resources, such as at Loulo-Gounkoto, the country's largest gold mine, which it has taken operational control of, demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes from its Canadian owner, Barrick Mining.