Mali’s ruling military junta is facing the most serious security crisis in over a decade after a sweeping coordinated offensive by Tuareg separatists and al-Qaeda-linked jihadists killed the country’s defence minister, General Sadio Camara, and forced the withdrawal of Russian Africa Corps mercenaries from the historic northern city of Kidal. The attacks, launched on Saturday, […]
The void left by France’s military withdrawal from the Sahel has filled with something far more dangerous than a strategic vacuum — it has filled with armed men. Three years after Paris began winding down its counter-terrorism operations across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, the ideological and operational space once held by French forces has
France’s Sahel Retreat Opens Door for Islamists — Togo Is Now on the Front Line Read More »
In the ancient city of Kidal, deep in Mali’s troubled north, Russian flags fly openly now. Paramilitaries in sandy fatigues, identifiable by their distinctive insignia and their heavily armed convoys of white Toyota Hilux pickups, patrol streets that once bustled with Tuareg traders. Their presence was meant to bring security. Instead, it has brought a
We Do Not Feel Safe: Civilians in Mali Live in Terror Under Russia Africa Corps Read More »
When the sun rises over Burkina Faso’s remote villages, families wake to a terror that comes from two directions at once. A landmark report by Human Rights Watch has laid bare what analysts have long suspected: both government security forces and jihadist insurgent groups are responsible for systematic civilian killings that have claimed the lives
