Mali and Senegal inaugurated the interconnection of their fiber-optic backbone networks on Monday, 5 October 2026, at a ceremony held at Diboli, on the Kidira bridge marking the border between the two countries. The project links the networks of Sénégal Numérique SA (SENUM SA) and Mali's Société malienne de transmission et de diffusion (SMTD-SA).
"Cette cérémonie marque bien plus que la mise en service d'une infrastructure technique," said Isidore Diouf, director general of SENUM SA, who framed the link as a symbol of African integration, declaring that the connection between the two national backbones demonstrates that borders exist only in people's minds and can be overcome through determination. His Malian counterpart, Cheikh Oumar Traoré, director general of SMTD-SA, highlighted benefits for the private sector and emerging digital services for young people. The ceremony was attended by the governor of the Tambacounda region, the prefect of the Ambidédi district in Mali, and territorial and security officials from both countries.
According to press materials cited by reporters at the event, the infrastructure is intended to secure and diversify connectivity routes between the two countries and improve the quality of digital services in the border zone. Senegal's national fiber backbone, managed by SENUM, spans roughly 4,000 to 4,500 km connecting major urban and administrative centers, while Mali's SMTD-operated network extends over 3,000 km across the country. However, the specific bandwidth capacity of the new cross-border link itself, routing details beyond the Kidira-Diboli crossing, funding sources, and a commercial operational date were not disclosed at the ceremony.
Some reports linked the project to the Réseau ouest-africain des Backbones (ROA-BN), a regional body grouping fiber-network operators from nine West African countries, including Guinea, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Ghana, which aims to strengthen interconnection and pool capacity among national networks in the subregion. It remains unclear how this bilateral link fits into Mali's broader transit arrangements through other neighbors such as Côte d'Ivoire or Burkina Faso, or what regulatory arrangement governs the connection with Senegal's dominant operator, Sonatel.
The announcement comes as Mali's junta continues pursuing regional realignment away from ECOWAS and Western partners alongside its Alliance of Sahel States partners, even as this particular infrastructure cooperation proceeds with ECOWAS member Senegal.