The Russian foreign ministry confirmed reports that Mali plans to hire contractors with the Wagner Group to fight extremism in the Sahel, but insisted again that the private company is not operating under Moscow’s control. The remarks from Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov followed questions about the presence of Wagner…
Military officials in France say at least 33 members of a terrorist group died during an overnight raid on Saturday in the Mopti region of central Mali. The Ministry of Defense said the French troops targeted a large camp of the armed extremists in a wooded area after acquiring intelligence…
Military leaders and dignitaries traveled from France to Mali on Wednesday to pay tribute to 13 soldiers killed earlier this week in a helicopter collision while supporting anti-terrorism efforts in the Sahel. The crash happened in the dark as the helicopters flew low over ground operations in the Liptako Gourma…
Eighteen members of the Islamic State affiliate active in Niger have been killed in a 10-day operation completed by the Nigerien military in partnership with France, Mali and the United States. That’s according to defense minister Kalla Moutari in Niamey, who announced the results of the ACONIT operation in a…
Four hostages held in Burkina Faso were freed late Thursday by French special forces serving with Operation Barkhane, with two of the commandos dying during the mission. The two were identified as Cédric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncello, who were killed by terrorists during an operation conducted in cooperation with…
The terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou on Friday were by no means the first in Burkina Faso, where people were gunned down in the Aziz Istanbul restaurant while dining in August or died at the Splendid Hotel, a site popular among Westerners that was targeted by car bomb attacks in January…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday promised €8 million this year, along with equipment and technical support, as he joined the presidents of the G5 Sahel countries in Bamako Sunday to formally launch the Sahel joint force (FC-G5S). It is expected to be operational in the fall, and based in the…
The G5 Sahel summit next Sunday in Bamako is likely to serve as a turning point in the years-long struggle for security, in a region where the threat of terrorism has only appeared to deepen and armed ethnic and jihadist groups remain firmly entrenched. The G5 nations – Burkina Faso,…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
The United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution that gives the go-ahead for the Group of Five Sahel joint force (FC-G5S), a counterterrorism effort of up to 5,000 military and law enforcement personnel drawn from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Issa Konfourou, Mali’s ambassador to the United…
Newly elected President Emmanuel Macron of France promised during his campaign that once in office, his first trip abroad would be to see French troops stationed in the Sahel in Operation Barkhane. Now he’s making good on that promise with a visit, expected to be in Mali, on Thursday or…
At a time when attacks on humanitarian aid workers and UN experts are painfully top of mind – as illustrated by recent events in Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan – a provocative new report from Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) questions how the mission and safety of…