MALI
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Sahel: Jihadists surround Mali town of Boni
Jihadists have since late May blockaded the central Malian town of Boni and interrupted traffic on a major highway in the region, the UN and several local sources say. "Since May 25, 2022, extremist armed groups have prevented the movement of people and goods in this...
Sahel: Mali launches military offensive to retake town of Anderamboukane from insurgents
Malian forces and local armed groups have launched a bid to recapture a jihadist-held border town in a region where hundreds of civilians have died in the past few months, sources there say. Fighting has been unfolding over the last few days at the strategic town of...
Togo: Al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM claims May attack in Togo
A Mali-based coalition of Al-Qaeda aligned militants has claimed responsibility for an attack in Togo last month, the SITE Intelligence monitoring group said on Friday. The Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) has been expanding geographically, threatening...
Sahel: Chaos and killings accelerate in Mali
UN report highlights the brutality of Mali’s army Civilian deaths and rights abuses by Malian soldiers surged in the first quarter of 2022, a United Nations report said on Monday, but Bamako dismissed it as biased and unverified allegations aimed at tarnishing its...
Sahel: Millions of people face food shortages
The United Nations warned Friday that up to 18 million people in the Sahel face severe food insecurity, with rations being cut due to funding shortages. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said that conflict, the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and rising costs were...
Sahel: Three foreign nationals kidnapped in Mali
Armed men have kidnapped an Italian couple and their child as well as a Togolese national in southeastern Mali, a local official and a Malian security source told AFP Friday. They said the abductions occurred late Thursday about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the...
Mali withdraws from G5 Sahel security force
Mali's junta announced Sunday that it will quit a West African anti-jihadist force after it was blocked from assuming the presidency of the regional group. The country's departure from the G5 Sahel security force deepens its isolation after its neighbours hit it with...
Sahel terror spreads to Togo with new attack in Kpinkankandi
Eight soldiers were killed on Wednesday and 13 wounded in a "terrorist attack" in northern Togo near the border with Burkina Faso, the government said, using a term typically designating jihadists. Togo's troops are deployed in the north of the country to try and...
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...
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