MALI
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Media: Mali bans French state-owned news agencies France24 and RFI
Mali's ruling junta has ordered French broadcasters RFI and France 24 off the air, complaining they had falsely accused the army of committing abuses, it said in a statement issued on Thursday. The government in Bamako "categorically rejects these false accusations...
Sahel: Mauritania accuses Mali army of crimes against its citizens
The foreign ministry in Nouakchott on Tuesday accused Mali's army of crimes against Mauritanians after protesters in the capital charged they had been killed "in cold blood". Mali's ambassador Mohamed Dibassy had been called in to hear a "strong protest against the...
Sahel: Mali military not ready to restore civilian rule
An envoy from West Africa's regional bloc left Mali on Friday, officials said, after inconclusive talks with the military junta over restoring civilian rule in the fragile Sahel state. Former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, representing the 15-nation Economic...
Mali: Violent clash rocks Timbuktu with many casualties
The Malian army said it had killed 19 jihadists in operations northeast of the capital Bamako that were supported by European special forces. A statement by the armed forces chief of staff late Tuesday said operations in the Timbuktu, Segou, Mopti and Bandiagara...
Sahel: Senegalese President begs Germany to not abandon Mali
Senegalese President Macky Sall on Monday urged Germany to keep its troops in Mali, amid uncertainty over their future in the fragile Sahel country after France announced a military withdrawal. The call came at a news conference in Senegal's capital Dakar with German...
Sahel: Mali military junta rules out return to normal for at least five years
Mali's lawmakers on Monday approved a plan allowing the military junta to rule for up to five years, AFP journalists said, despite regional sanctions imposed on the country over delayed elections. After staging a coup in the impoverished Sahel state in August 2020,...
Sahel: France announces troop withdrawal from Mali: Implications
What next for Mali as France plans military pullout? By Amaury Hauchard, with Laurent Lozano in Dakar France's announcement on Thursday that it will withdraw its military from Mali marks a profound shift in the balance of power in the Sahel. Allied forces from...
Sahel: Fake news flooding troubled region
By Amaury Hauchard, with Boureima Hama in Niamey Fake news is flooding Africa's conflict-ridden Sahel, according to experts, sowing discord and confusion in the increasingly volatile region. Doctored news bulletins and altered photos often spread like wildfire on...
Sahel: Belgium is no longer sending troops to Mali
Belgium has for now ruled out deploying a contingent of some 250 troops to Mali, the Belgian defence minister's office told AFP on Tuesday, as European forces withdraw from the region. Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder told a committee in the Belgian Parliament that...
Sahel: Denmark withdraws aid to Mali and Burkina Faso
Denmark will partially suspend its development aid to Mali and Burkina Faso, its foreign ministry said on Friday, intensifying pressure on the military juntas running the impoverished West African countries. The decision came after Mali forced Danish troops...
Sahel: How to destroy a nation: ordinary Malians speak of their horrific life
By Amaury Hauchard Some are men of arms, who have taken up a gun out of need or for a cause. Others are just ordinary civilians, struggling to survive from one day to the next and make sense of the mayhem. These are the people of central Mali, which in 2015 spiralled...
Mali’s new leaders are unflinching in face of economic turmoil
By Amaury Hauchard: Mali's ruling military junta has appeared unflinching so far in the face of economic sanctions imposed a month ago by the country's West African neighbours, despite indications the measures are beginning to bite. In response to the junta postponing...
Mali: New Mali leaders looking to ease tensions with Ecowas
Mali's ruling junta said Wednesday that it was in talks with the West African bloc ECOWAS, as well as other organisations, to find a "compromise" on restoring civilian rule. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed a trade embargo and closed...
Mali: The demise of the historic Timbuktu and the man who helped destroy it
The fabled shrine city of Timbuktu was reduced to a "shadow of its former self" by Islamist jihadists, and residents are still living in fear today, the International Criminal Court heard Tuesday. Lawyers representing 1,946 victims of the year-long jihadist occupation...
Mali accuses France of seeking to divide the country
Mali's prime minister on Monday accused France of having sought the partition of the west African country during its military mission there, the latest flare-up in relations between Paris and Bamako. In a 45-minute speech to diplomats gathered at his request, Choguel...
US-Russia competition expands to Mali and the Sahel
The top US military commander for Africa on Thursday suggested that impoverished and jihadist-hit Mali was paying Russian private military company Wagner $10 million a month. France, Mali's former colonial ruler, has accused Wagner's mercenaries of "supporting" Mali's...
Sahel: Europe struggles to respond to changing geopolitics in Mali
By Daphné Benoit and Stuart Williams France said Tuesday it would decide with its EU partners by mid-February on the future of the French-led anti-jihadist force in Mali after the ruling junta expelled Paris' ambassador. French ambassador Joel Meyer was told on Monday...
Sahel: Regime in Mali initiates talks with former rebels without France’s blessing
Former Malian rebels have signed a pact designed to "facilitate ties" with the Sahel state's ruling junta, a spokesman for the armed groups said on Thursday. The ex-rebels, who range from former Tuareg separatists to Arab nationalists, had already signed a peace...
Sahel: Mali leaders want more power
Mali's military-dominated authorities on Saturday published a bill designed to further shore up the powers of junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita. The text, adopted by a cabinet meeting late Friday, provides for the "abolishment of the post of vice-president (of the...
International: Europe getting angry at Mali leaders
The European Union on Friday imposed targeted sanctions on five members of Mali's ruling junta, including Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga. In a statement from EU member states the targets are accused of "actions that obstruct and undermine the successful...
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