Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

“Regional armies outmatched by tech-savvy jihadists”

“Regional armies outmatched by tech-savvy jihadists”

WEST African armies need a new strategy to combat the growing jihadist threat because improved technologies have given militants the upper hand as they seek to destabilise the Sahel region, Niger's president Mohamed Bazoum said on Monday. Groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have expanded their reach in the central Sahel since 2017, staging regular attacks that have killed thousands of people and displaced millions across Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. "Technological advances are now allowing rebel groups to access a number of tools which used to be the privilege of state forces," said Bazoum, noting the use…
Read More
Militants kill at least 31 in central Mali, say local authorities

Militants kill at least 31 in central Mali, say local authorities

MILITANTS killed at least 31 people in central Mali on Friday when they fired upon a bus ferrying people to a local market, local authorities said - the latest deadly attack in a region racked by violent insurgency. The bus was attacked by unidentified gunmen as it travelled its twice-weekly route from the village of Songho to a market in Bandiagara, 10 kilometres (6 miles) away, said Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass. "Armed men ... shot at the vehicle, slashed the tires, and shot at the people," Guindo said. He and another local official, who spoke…
Read More
Germany jails Islamic State member for life over role in Yazidi genocide

Germany jails Islamic State member for life over role in Yazidi genocide

A German court has jailed a former Islamic State militant for life for involvement in genocide and crimes against humanity against minority Yazidis in Iraq and Syria, including the murder of a five-year-old girl. It was the first genocide verdict against a member of Islamic State, an offshoot of al Qaeda that seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014 before being ousted by U.S.-backed counter-offensives, losing its last territorial redoubt in 2019. In a landmark ruling, the court in Frankfurt found Taha al-Jumailly, 29, an Iraqi national, guilty of involvement in the slaughter of more than 3,000 Yazidis…
Read More
French minister in Sahel amid talk of Russian hired guns for Mali

French minister in Sahel amid talk of Russian hired guns for Mali

FRANCE’S Armed Forces Minister has arrived in Niger as part of a two-day visit to allies in the Sahel region, where French-led military operations against Islamist militants are under threat from Mali's talks with Russian defence contractors. Diplomatic and security sources have told Reuters that Mali's year-old military junta is close to recruiting the Russian Wagner Group, and France has launched a diplomatic drive to thwart it, saying such an arrangement is "incompatible" with a continued French presence. West Africa's main political bloc, ECOWAS, has also expressed concern. But Mali's junta has dug in, noting that France has begun scaling…
Read More
Four soldiers killed in Mali

Four soldiers killed in Mali

FOUR soldiers were killed when their patrol was ambushed by suspected militants in central Mali yesterday, the army said in a statement The region is where Mali is battling Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The army said in a statement that the patrol was ambushed near the town of Lere on Sunday morning. "The provisional toll is at four soldiers killed," it said. The attack comes as France, which has deployed over 5,000 counter-terrorism soldiers in Mali to help combat militants, said on Friday that it has…
Read More
Thousands protest in Burkina Faso

Thousands protest in Burkina Faso

THOUSANDS took to the streets of Burkina Faso's capital yesterday to call for a tougher government response to a wave of jihadist attacks that have destabilised the West African country in recent years. Some had travelled hundreds of kilometres to attend the opposition-led demonstration in Ouagadougou, where protesters waved the red and green Burkinabe flag and blew whistles. "We had to show our dissatisfaction, show the distress of citizens who are crying out for security and peace," said opposition supporter Alpha Yago on the sidelines of the protest. Groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State originally based in neighbouring…
Read More
Burkina Faso president takes on defence role amid security crisis

Burkina Faso president takes on defence role amid security crisis

BURKINA Faso's president Roch Kabore has taken over the role of defence minister in a cabinet reshuffle aimed at stopping a wave of jihadist attacks that has plagued the West Africa country in recent years, according to a presidential decree. Groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State originally based in neighbouring Mali have embedded themselves across north and eastern Burkina Faso, launching regular attacks on civilians, including one this month that killed more than 130 people, the worst in years. Pressure has increased on Kabore to win back control and end a humanitarian crisis in which more than 1…
Read More
‘Child soldiers carried out Burkina Faso massacre’

‘Child soldiers carried out Burkina Faso massacre’

A massacre in northeast Burkina Faso in which more than 130 people were killed this month was carried out mostly by children between the ages of 12 and 14, the United Nations and the government have revealed. Armed assailants raided the village of Solhan on the evening of June 4, opened fire on residents and burned homes. It was the worst attack in years in an area plagued by jihadists linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda. Government spokesman Ousseni Tamboura said the majority of the attackers were children, prompting condemnation from the U.N. "We strongly condemn the recruitment of…
Read More
Suicide bomber wounds French troops in central Mali

Suicide bomber wounds French troops in central Mali

A suicide bomber in a car attacked a French reconnaissance mission in central Mali yesterday, wounding some of the soldiers and local residents, the French army said. The French military did not say how many were hurt, but the mayor of the town of Gossi, where the attack happened, said he had heard many people were wounded. "The detonation was so loud it blew out the windows of some houses," said the mayor, Moussa Ag Almouner. "We still hear shots, planes flying over the place." No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Islamist militant groups linked to al Qaeda…
Read More
Ambush in northern Ivory Coast kills three soldiers

Ambush in northern Ivory Coast kills three soldiers

THREE Ivorian soldiers were killed on patrol near the border with Burkina Faso when one of their vehicles hit an improvised explosive and the convoy was ambushed, Ivory Coast's defence ministry said in a statement. The soldiers were on a reconnaissance mission near the northeastern town of Tehini when they fell victim to what the ministry called a complex attack. An additional four soldiers were wounded, it said in a statement on Sunday, without giving further details. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but previous attacks in the area have been blamed on jihadists. Armed groups linked to al…
Read More