Mali opposition leader Soumalia Cisse abducted days before election
Gunmen abducted Soumaila Cisse, the leader of Mali's main opposition party, and members of his campaign team days before parliamentary polls. Cisse and his team were attacked as they campaigned for the vote on Sunday near the candidate's hometown of Niafunke in the north of ...
At current rate, female genital mutilation will take centuries to eradicate, U.N. says
Female genital mutilation (FGM) will take centuries to eradicate despite world leaders promising to end the practice by 2030, according to United Nations data released on Thursday. FGM remains as common today as 30 years ago in Somalia, Mali, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Chad and Senegal, ...
Mali will increase the size of its army by about 50 percent in a recruitment drive this year aimed at uprooting jihadist groups, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse said on Wednesday. The plan is to hire 10,000 new soldiers in the coming months to "allow our ...
Pentagon weighs pulling U.S. troops from West Africa: report
The Pentagon is looking into reducing or even withdrawing U.S. troops from West Africa, part of a worldwide redeployment of military forces, the New York Times reported Tuesday. There are between 6,000 and 7,000 U.S. troops in Africa, mainly in West Africa but also in ...
France has officially deployed its first armed drones, three American-built Reapers fitted with laser-guided missiles, in its fight against a jihadi insurrection in Africa's Sahel region, Defense Minister Florence Parly announced Thursday. The drones, which have already since 2014 provided surveillance support to the French ...
Leaders of the G5 Sahel nations held summit talks in Niamey Sunday, after the death last week of 71 Niger soldiers in a jihadi attack, calling for closer cooperation and international support in the battle against the Islamist threat. Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian ...
French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Sunday defended itself following outrage over cartoons about a deadly military helicopter crash in Mali, the day before a memorial service for the 13 dead soldiers. The magazine, which was itself the target of a devastating attack by Islamic ...
More than 2.4 million people need urgent food aid across the central Sahel region, encompassing Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, where rising jihadi violence has triggered a humanitarian crisis, the U.N. said Tuesday. "If we do not act now to tackle hunger in the Sahel, ...
Burkina Faso accuses Mali of unauthorized military incursion
Burkina Faso's government said the Malian army had no authorization to cross into its territory to kill three people during a spate of ethnic violence last week. Malian officials were not available to comment, but the Malian army said on Saturday that its forces had ...
ECOWAS leaders pledge $1 billion to fight Islamist threat in West Africa
West African leaders have pledged $1 billion to combat the spiraling threat of Islamist militancy in the region, the head of the regional ECOWAS bloc said on Saturday. Groups with links to al-Qaida and Islamic State have strengthened their foothold across the arid Sahel region ...
As violence escalates, attack by ethnic militia on central Mali villages leaves 115 dead
An attack by members of an ethnic militia on three villages in central Mali claimed 115 lives, the latest clash in an increasingly violent conflict that is fueled by Islamist extremism. Another 46 were injured in the attack on ethnic Fulani villages on Saturday morning ...
Loud explosions again rock northern Mali's Timbuktu near U.N. peacekeeper bases
Several loud explosions rocked the northern Mali city of Timbuktu on Sunday near military bases where one U.N peacekeeper was killed and seven French troops were wounded last weekend by Islamist militants, a resident and a U.N. source said. The U.N. source said that the ...
