Mali’s troubled tourism sector crosses fingers for comeback

Locals carrying buckets of mud to re-plaster the Great Mosque of Djenne, an annual tradition in Djenne, Mali — Photos: AFP

Oumar Cisse used to lead tours of Djenne, an ancient, fabled city in central Mali known for its towering mud-brick mosque, but he now ekes out a living driving an old motorcycle taxi in Bamako.

Mali’s once robust tourism sector has dried up in recent years after an iron-fisted junta came to power in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, and as Al-Qaeda-linked forces waged a campaign of attacks.