MALI
Click here to sign up for free weekly email
Email recaps are sent every Thursdays.
Sign up today
Sahel: Troop toll from Mali jihadist clash rises to 14 dead, 31 “terrorists killed”
Fourteen Malian soldiers were killed in a clash with jihadists this week, the army said Thursday, giving a new toll in an attack claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked group. Fighting erupted when an army unit was hit by roadside bombs between the towns of Mopti and Segou in...
Sahel: Several killed in army-Jihadists confrontation in central Mali
At least 12 soldiers died in clashes with jihadists in central Mali, army and police officers said on Wednesday. The fighting on Tuesday between the towns of Mopti and Segou also left seven jihadists dead, the army said overnight, giving an earlier toll of three...
Podcast: Sahel and North Africa week in review 7 Jan 2023
Greetings to our second episode of Week in Review and a quick summary of what we are tracking in the Sahel and in North Africa. Today is Saturday, the 7th of January 2023. This past week was somewhat subdued in the region largely due to the year-end holiday season and...
Sahel: Mali avoids escalating regional crisis by pardoning jailed Ivorian soldiers
Mali's junta leader on Friday pardoned all 49 Ivorian soldiers whose arrest in July triggered a bitter diplomatic row, a government spokesman said, just a week after the courts sentenced them. "Colonel Assimi Goita... granted a pardon with full remission of sentences...
Mali: Unidentified armed individuals kill five people on Bamako-Segou road
Two firefighters and three civilians were killed on Monday night in an attack in southeastern Mali, the ministry of security and civil protection said Tuesday. A sixth person was also wounded. At around 9:00 pm, the Civil Protection Road Rescue Post of Markacoungo, in...
Sahel: Ivory Coast hands down four life terms to 4 Mali nationals for 2016 jihadist attack
A court in Ivory Coast on Wednesday handed down life terms to four Malian men convicted of abetting a jihadist attack on a beach resort that left 19 people dead. The court in Abidjan, the country's commercial hub, found the four "guilty of the deeds for which they...
Sahel: 46 Ivory Coast soldiers detained by Mali get 20 years in prison, setting stage for regional diplomatic crisis
Update: Mali court sentences 46 Ivorian soldiers to 20 years in prison: prosecutor Forty-six Ivorian troops whose detention in Mali sparked a diplomatic row between the two countries have been sentenced to 20 years in prison, the public prosecutor said Friday. Three...
Sahel: Security conditions to worsen in northern Mali as peace deal collapses
Almost all armed groups in Mali that signed a major peace deal in 2015 suspended their participation in the agreement on Thursday, decrying the ruling junta's "lack of political will" to uphold it. The Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) -- a predominantly Tuareg...
Sahel: Worker of Doctors without Borders (MSF) kidnapped in north Mali
A worker with the French-based medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) has been kidnapped in jihadist-torn northern Mali, police and a local official said on Tuesday. The individual was seized by armed men early Monday in Gao, the region's biggest town, a police...
Sahel: Germany threatens withdrawal of troops from Mali by 2024
German forces will stay in Mali until 2024 only if the junta allows them to operate freely and elections are held, Germany's defence minister warned Bamako during a visit Thursday. Lambrecht said Germany's presence depended on being able to "fulfil our operational...
Mali: Two UN peacekeepers killed in Timbuktu
Two peacekeepers in Mali were killed and four others wounded in an attack on Friday, the UN mission said, in the latest blow to the international operation. Unidentified assailants opened fire on the police patrol in Timbuktu, according to the UN mission, known as...
Mali: Joliba TV resumes broadcasting after two month suspension by junta
Mali's communications authority said Thursday it had lifted the suspension of one of the Sahel country's main news channels, taken off the air a month ago over criticism of the junta. The channel had on October 13 been put on notice over a September 30 editorial by...
Sahel: Insurgents make major gains in northeast Mali
By Amaury Hauchard Jihadists aligned with the Islamic State group are advancing in northeastern Mali, prompting terrified citizens to flee their homes, sources there say. The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) launched an offensive in the Gao and Menaka...
Sahel: Six arrested and massive protest in Mali over video deemed anti-Islamic
Thousands of demonstrators thronged Mali's capital Bamako on Friday to protest the publication of a video on social media deemed blasphemous against Islam. Six people were held on Thursday accused of complicity in circulating a "blasphemous" video showing a man making...
Sahel: Deadly year for northern Mali
Armed groups affiliated with the Islamic State group have massacred hundreds of people in northeast Mali this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday, adding the state was not doing enough to protect civilians. Tens of thousands of villagers from the Menaka and...
Sahel: US concerned about worsening crisis in Mali, blames Russia’s Wagner Group
By Portia Crowe Mali's security situation has become "significantly worse" due to the ruling junta's choices, including an alleged decision to partner with Wagner, a Russian private security firm, a senior US official said Wednesday. Mali's ruling junta, which seized...
Sahel: Unstable Sahel creates new opportunities for insurgent groups
By Didier Laura: Burkina Faso's new rulers say they seized power to better fight jihadists, but history in the Sahel suggests the coup will merely stoke turbulence and division, benefiting the insurgents, analysts say. The poor, arid region has been wracked by...
Sahel: Russia courting nation of Mali with free fertilizer
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Malian junta leader Assimi Goita Tuesday that he wanted to donate to Mali Russian fertiliser blocked by Western sanctions since Moscow's offensive began in Ukraine. "The importance of carrying out Russia's initiative to transfer...
Sahel: Russian plane to be delivered to Mali crashes near Gao, pilot killed
A Russian pilot died Tuesday when a plane that Russia had recently delivered to Mali's armed forces crashed near the northern city of Gao, a military official told AFP. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, gave no details about the crash other than to say...
Sahel: Niger suspends oil deliveries to Mali after Bamako launched verbal attack on Niger’s president
Niger has suspended the shipping of oil products through the Sahel nation to neighbouring Mali for "security reasons" in the face of a jihadist insurgency, customs sources told AFP Tuesday. An internal customs service note dated September 21 declared "the suspension...
Connect
You can find us on a few social media platforms. Feel free to connect with us there.