Mali owes over $94 million to the entity managing the Manantali dam, a key regional power source for Senegal and Mauritania, and the debt is now critical to the dam’s continued operation, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
The debt crisis raises concerns about further electricity shortages in Mali, where power outages in recent years have already affected public support for the military government, which took control after coups in 2020 and 2021.
The Manantali dam, which began operating in 2002, has an installed capacity of 200 megawatts. Mali receives more than half of the electricity produced, while Senegal receives 33% and Mauritania gets 15%.
Currently, Mali owes over 54 billion CFA ($94.12 million) to SOGEM, the entity that manages the dam and other regional projects, according to an April 25 letter from SOGEM to the director-general of Mali’s electricity utility, Energie du Mali.
The letter, signed by SOGEM’s director-general, Mohamed Mahmoud Sid’Elemine, warns that the debt is now “a question of life or death” for the installations and for SOGEM.
It remains unclear whether the debt is solely related to the Manantali dam or includes other costs. However, a source within the utility indicated that most of the debt has accumulated over the past year.
The utility has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The letter highlights the Manantali project as a model of regional cooperation, noting that it cost hundreds of billions of CFA francs to implement. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are part of the Alliance of Sahel States and announced last year that they would be leaving the ECOWAS bloc, which has also played a role in the region’s political and economic landscape.