Mali is endowed with a history of kinetic physical security threats, hostile intergroup relations and the existence of active cells of global terrorist organisations. The accompanying threat is deepened by state fragility and weak institutions of governance that sustains the country’s vulnerability to terrorism in a neighbourhood characterised by cross-border terrorism and related illicit transnational trafficking. Despite over a decade of constitutional governance and foreign military presence, neither the foreign troops nor Mali’s political leadership has been able to stamp out terrorist attacks in the country. This has contributed to unconstitutional change of government through military coups and accompanying sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The suspension of Mali from the regional economic bloc and its eventual exit alongside Burkina Faso and Niger to form the Alliance of Sahel States provides new risks and opportunities for Mali and its neighbours in relation to its terrorist challenge.