Mali's borders with Mauritania and Algeria

The Mauritania border at Gogui

An undated IOM project document on joint border management names the Gogui post in Kayes region in Mali as the counterpart of a Mauritanian post at Gogui ⁷. It names other Malian posts at Foita and Léré in Tombouctou region and at Weymal Nara in Koulikoro region ⁷. It lists the Direction de la Police des Frontières in Mali and the border police in Mauritania among the agencies, with gendarmerie and customs services ⁷. It describes MIDAS as a border management system to record cross-border passenger flows electronically ⁷.

France says Mauritania has 21 international crossing points open to all travellers and 61 bilateral crossings restricted to Mauritanian citizens and nationals of the neighbouring country ¹. It says the Gogui crossing is in a red zone and that using it is formally advised against ¹.

Residence cards and expulsions in 2025

Koaci reported on 14 March 2025 that Mauritania had expelled 528 Malian migrants to Gogui since 2 March 2025 for lacking residence cards ⁵. Mauritania's Foreign Ministry said it had set up simplified procedures for West African nationals to obtain residence cards and regretted that many migrants had not renewed their annual cards, according to the report ⁵. Dr Boulaye Keita, an adviser at Mali's ministry for Malians abroad, said 528 Malians had arrived and were receiving assistance ⁵.

Hassane Koné of the Institute for Security Studies wrote on 6 October 2025 that trade on the roads linking Mali to Senegal and Mauritania was disrupted by JNIM since 3 September 2025 and that travellers were kidnapped on those routes ⁸.

Algeria and the airspace closures

Algeria shot down a Malian drone on the night of 31 March to 1 April 2025 near Tin Zaouatine, as reported by Al Jazeera ⁹. Algiers said the drone entered its airspace by more than 2 km. Bamako said it was flying over Malian territory about 10 km from the border ⁹. Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger recalled their ambassadors to Algiers ⁹.

On 7 April 2025 Algeria's Ministry of National Defence banned all air traffic between the two countries, citing repeated airspace violations, as reported by Xinhua ³. In response, Mali's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure closed Malian airspace to all civilian and military aircraft travelling to and from Algeria, effective immediately and until further notice ³. Rafik Tadjer of TSA reported on 10 July 2026 that Algeria's Ministry of National Defence had decided to fully reopen Algerian airspace to Malian air traffic from that day, for all flights to and from Mali ¹¹. Alain Hai of Air Journal reported on 19 July 2026 that Mali had reopened its airspace to all civil and military aircraft flying to or from Algeria ¹². That report cited no Malian official document, and this guide found none ¹².

Official advisories on these borders