MALI
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Sahel: UK deploys hundreds of troops to war-torn Mali
Britain is deploying 300 troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali to help strengthen security and human rights there, its defence ministry said Thursday. The British troops will provide the UN mission with "a highly specialised reconnaissance capability,...
Sahel: Fragile calm in northern Mali town of Menaka
After years of violence and lawlessness during which the Malian town of Menaka changed hands between rebels and Islamists, a fragile calm has finally returned due to joint patrols by federal troops, militiamen and UN peacekeepers. Situated in the desert northeast of...
Sahel: Military posts in northern Mali attacked
Suspected militants attacked several Malian and foreign military bases with mortars and rockets in the north of the country on Monday, military sources said. No casualties were immediately reported in the attacks on Menaka, Gao and Kidal in what appeared to be a rare...
Sahel: French forces intensify their operations in the Sahel, report killing Al Qaeda’s Ba Ag Moussa
France announced Friday that its anti-jihadist force in Mali had killed the military commander of an Al-Qaeda-aligned group linked to attacks in the region. The killing of Ba Ag Moussa is a major boost for the thousands-strong French Barkhane force stationed in the...
Sahel: Mali politics sinking to new low with military’s attempt at power grab
A leading opposition group on Wednesday warned of a military stranglehold on Mali's post-coup government and called for "resistance.... to save democracy" in the Sahel state. The statement from the opposition June 5 Movement, or M5, follows a decree published on...
Sahel: Former president of Mali, Amadou Toumani Toure dies in Bamako
Mali's former president, Amadou Toumani Toure, who steered the Sahel nation to democracy and led it for a decade before being ousted in a coup, has died in Turkey aged 72, a family member and a doctor said on Tuesday. Toure "died during the night of Monday to Tuesday...
Sahel: Gunmen ambush bus in Mali, kill eight people
Gunmen have killed eight people in central Mali, a local official and security ministry staffer said Wednesday, in the latest violence to hit the war-torn Sahel state. Militants attacked a minibus Tuesday, the officials said, which was travelling between the towns of...
Sahel: France drags European troops into a conflict they cannot win
Inside a military base in northern Mali, a concrete bollard emblazoned with French, Estonian and Swedish flags marks a zone reserved for a new anti-jihadist unit of elite European troops. Dubbed Task Force Takuba, the new joint deployment marks a coup for France,...
Sahel: As expected, France opposes dialogue in the Sahel
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, on a trip to Mali on Monday, ruled out dialogue with jihadists driving an eight-year-old insurgency in the Sahel state. (See our opinion on this last week). "Let's say things very clearly. There are peace accords (with...
Sahel: UN chief signals potential for dialogue with insurgents in the Sahel, but Paris won’t allow it
Editor's commentary by Arezki Daoud: France won’t let it happen Perhaps this is another opportunity for the world and regional powers, as well as to the Malians themselves to recognize a number of key facts. That starts with the idea that a central government in...
Sahel: Another massacre in Mali, 12 civilian killed in Mopti
Twelve civilians were killed in volatile central Mali on Tuesday morning in addition to 12 soldiers who died in a twin attack that began overnight, police and humanitarian officials said. The group was travelling in a minibus following a military convoy sent to...
Mali: Attack on base in Mopti leaves dozen troops dead
Twelve Malian soldiers were killed in attacks on their base in the volatile centre of the country, the army said Tuesday, in the latest violence to hit the West African state. In a statement, Mali's military said an army outpost in the central Mopti region was...
Infighting inside the Sahel’s Jihadi movement
To the uninitiated, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group may be pursuing the same long-term goal of spreading Islamic law through territorial expansion and deadly violence. But actually, their ideology and methods differ so fundamentally that they are...
Sahel: Ecowas lifts sanctions on Mali, interim government releases detainees
Eleven political and military figures arrested during the coup in Mali in August have been released, including former prime minister Boubou Cisse, the transition authorities announced. New army strongman Assimi Goita issued an official statement late Wednesday saying...
Sahel: French hostage and Mali opposition leader freed
A French aid worker kidnapped in Mali in 2016 and one of the country's leading opposition politicians have been released, the presidency said on Thursday. The office of Mali's president said on social media that Frenchwoman Sophie Petronin, 75, and Soumaila Cisse, 70,...
Sahel: Mali braces for potential release of hostages by Jihadis
[Photo of French hostage Sophie Petronin] - A second batch of jihadists has been freed in Mali, sources said Tuesday, boosting speculation that a French charity worker and Malian politician held by the insurgents may be freed in a swap. About 30 "jihadist prisoners...
Sahel: Upsurge of malaria cases in Mali
Malaria cases in northern Mali have spiked, according to medical workers, claiming 23 lives in the often lawless desert region last week alone. Mali's ministry of health said this week that 59 people have died of malaria in the north since the start of the year,...
Power politics in the Sahel: Profile of a Sufi leader
Cattle herders, traders and heads of state are among the people who have sought the ear of the sharif of Nioro, one of Mali's most influential men, to whom they voice their needs, grievances and hopes. A man of great clout and reputed wealth, Mouhamedou Ould Cheikh...
Mali: Moctar Ouane appointed Interim Prime Minister
Mali's interim president Bah Ndaw on Sunday named former Malian foreign minister Moctar Ouane as prime minister, opening the way for the country's neighbours to lift sanctions imposed after its August military coup. A civilian premier was the precondition for ECOWAS...
Mali’s neighbors want a civilian Prime Minister, pledge to keep sanctions otherwise
West African states will uphold sanctions on Mali until it appoints a civilian prime minister, the leader of the ECOWAS regional bloc said Friday. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States slapped sanctions on Mali after the August 18 military coup,...
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