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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...
Sahel: Growing pressure on Mali to release detained soldiers from Ivory Coast
The United Nations on Monday urged Mali to free 46 detained Ivorian soldiers, after the junta in Bamako attacked UN chief Antonio Guterres over his comments on the two-month standoff. The UN secretariat in a statement voiced "grave concern" and said it "calls for the...
The Sahel is in permanent state of climate shock, the world’s most vulnerable to extreme droughts, floods and heatwaves
The World Bank on Monday urged five West African countries to diversify their economies to adapt to climate change, warning they are extremely vulnerable to extreme weather patterns. A report said Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger -- all in the arid...
Sahel: Germany suspends reconnaissance patrols in Mali due to inability to get flyover right
Germany has again suspended its reconnaissance patrols in eastern Mali that are part of a UN peacekeeping mission after failing to get flyover rights, the military said Monday. The permission is needed for flights between Gao, home to the German military's main base...
Sahel: Row between Mali and Ivory Coast intensifies
Mali's ruling junta has heightened its diplomatic and verbal joust with Ivory Coast over 46 detained Ivorian soldiers, warning other West African states to stay out of the spat. In a statement read on state television on Thursday evening, interim Prime Minister...
Sahel: Senior Mali army officer admits defeat, calls for evacuation of part of the north
A well-known Malian commander has urged civilians to flee part of a northern region recently attacked by Islamic State jihadists, in a rare admission of the security problems facing locals. "There are no armed forces or any entity to guarantee the security of the...
Mali: In the absence of institutional security in Kidal, the Tuaregs are in charge
On a sandy street in a northern Malian town, armed guards take turns at a checkpoint next to two unmarked pickup trucks as dusk falls and the sky slowly fills with stars. The men are not army troops but fighters from the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) -- a...
Sahel: Three UN peacekeepers hurt in blast near Timbuktu, Mali
Three United Nations peacekeepers were hurt Sunday when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED) in northern Mali, the UN mission said on Twitter. The incident happened on a road between Ber and Timbuktu, MINUSMA said late Sunday, without identifying...
Sahel: Growing tensions between Senegal and Mali over soldiers held in Mali against their will
Ivory Coast has accused Bamako of "hostage taking" after its neighbour laid out conditions for the release of 46 Ivorian soldiers held in Mali for two months. "It's a hostage-taking that will not remain without consequences," a source close to the Ivorian presidency...
Sahel: Islamic State attackers kill dozens of civilians in northern Mali
Dozens of people died after jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State group mounted an attack on a village in northern Mali, a local elected official and the leader of an armed told AFP Friday. The raid was followed by intense fighting between them and other armed...
Sahel: As sanctions bite, regime in Mali pledges orderly return to civilian rule
Mali on Tuesday urged African organisations to lift the last sanctions they had imposed after the state underwent two military coups, declaring the country was well on track for restoring civilian rule. The troubled Sahel state underwent a first military takeover in...
Mali: As France pulls its forces out of Mali, Algeria seeks to fill the void in a complex environment ($)
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Sahel: German soldiers resume reconnaissance patrols in Mali
Germany has resumed reconnaissance patrols in eastern Mali as part of a UN peacekeeping mission, the military said Wednesday, after suspending the operations last month when the Malian government denied flyover rights. "Reconnaissance operations outside the city of...
Sahel: Region of Talataye in Mali falls in the hands of Islamic State affiliate after bitter fight with Al Qaeda
Jihadists affiliated to the Islamic State group have seized a town in northern Mali after bitter fighting with local rebels and rival militants linked to Al-Qaeda, several sources said Wednesday. The insurgents on Tuesday took Talataye, a town 150 kilometres (90...
Sahel: Intense violence in Mali sends thousands fleeing
Tens of thousands of people, many of them children, have fled to a town in northeastern Mali after fighting erupted in the jihadist-torn region, a local official said Wednesday. Since March, more than 65,000 people have arrived in the town of Menaka near the border...
Sahel: UN reports killing of civilians in a Mali army attack involving foreign troops
At least 50 civilians were killed and hundreds arrested in central Mali in April during an operation by the army and "foreign" personnel, the UN's peacekeeping mission said Wednesday. There was no immediate response from Mali's authorities to the allegations, just...
Sahel: Mali bans hookah smoking
"Shisha-abana," exclaims Bilal, a grocer in Mali's capital Bamako, in the national language Bambara: "Shisha is finished." His is a common reaction. An unexpected ban on hookah smoking in this West African country has stirred surprise as well as division, leaving...
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