Burkina Faso, Mali And Niger, three military-led Sahel countries, recently withdrew from the ECOWAS regional bloc and established a new military alliance to tackle jihadist violence in the region. But the new forces’ prospects for success are slim.
Tag: mali
A chapter of history is closing: that of the active French military presence on the African continent, which will soon be reduced to a bare minimum after being a central element of France’s presence in its former colonial empire.
Armed conflicts, droughts, floods, poverty… Many factors are pushing some young people from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger to take uncertain and dangerous migration routes. In the region of Africa just south of the Sahara, unregulated migration is increasing.
The next major geopolitical conflict is brewing in the Sahel region, in the north-central stretch of Africa south of the Sahara. Islamists and armed militias are plunging the entire region into chaos, and it is even possible a new jihadist emirate may emerge. Experts are already predicting there will be thousands of new refugees. Their destination: Europe.
In West and North Africa, survivors of migrants who’ve vanished have come together to support each other and pay tribute to their family members. But above all, they’re trying any means possible to find out the truth and get justice after years of silence.
? Bonjour!* Welcome to Friday, where several European countries see record daily COVID cases, South Korea pardons Park Geun-hye, and Taste-the-TV is a thing. We also look at a familiar story unfolding in Ukraine, where former president Petro Poroshenko has been accused of being in cahoots with Russia. As mentioned yesterday, the Worldcrunch Today crew […]
? Halito!* Welcome to Wednesday, where the WHO says vaccines may be less effective against the Omicron variant, a spacecraft “touches” the Sun for the first time and the Berlin metro is offering edible tickets. Warsaw-based daily Gazeta Wyborcza also looks at shocking practices multiplying in Poland’s booming and unregulated funeral business. [*Choctaw, Native American] […]
The French military announces the killing of Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahrawi the head of the jihadist group Islamic State in the Great Sahara (ISIS-GS). In its long involvement in the northwest African region of the Sahel, France.
Nine months after the military installed a new interim leader, a young colonel has again taken over the country in what looks like pure power play. But it may not be so simple, and Malians and international allies alike worry about what happens next.
After the Aug. 18 coup d’état in Mali, a growing popular protest movement that emerged in June may be quickly forgotten.
Social distancing, disinfecting common areas and accessing health care: All three key tactics for curbing the spread of coronavirus are particularly complicated inside jails and prisons. While it might seem like an already self-isolating bubble, life inside prisons has changed dramatically since COVID-19 arrived. In an effort to keep healthy, many have lost their rights […]
LIBYA ANNOUNCES UNITY GOVERNMENT As part of a UN-backed plan signed last December, Libya announced the formation of a unity government today to reconcile the country’s warring factions. In the process of negotiation, there were disputes over the distribution of ministerial posts, Al Jazeera reports. Two rival governments, one based in the capital of Tripoli […]
HOLLANDE MEETS PUTIN IN MOSCOW French President François Hollande is set to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin later today in Moscow in the hopes of forming an international military coalition against ISIS. Hollande has been engaged in a diplomatic blitz this week, having met with British Prime Minister David Cameron, U.S. President Barack Obama, German […]
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Against Jihadism, The Power Of Art
With “Timbuktu,” Abderrahmane Sissako searches deep to make artistic sense of the senseless horrors committed in the name of radical Islam. His movie has been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards.
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Rebuilding Timbuktu’s Destroyed Heritage
Jihadists destroyed 14 of the 16 sacred mausoleums of the “city of 333 saints” two years ago. Local and international efforts are restoring the sites, an encouraging a more tolerant Islam.
As France embarks on its third military intervention in Africa in the past three years, in the Central African Republic, a search for the sources of a continent’s perennial instability.
The disaffected youth and religious radicals in the Muslim world are obsessed with Europe’s top football leagues. Testimony of an Italian reporter, who was held hostage earlier this year in Syria.
Peace is a process, never a single event. Negotiations for peace are always far more complicated than the public understands, and the results are not always miraculous. Even so, the majority of modern conflicts — 80%, according to the School for the Culture of Peace in Barcelona — eventually end after negotiations. The school’s reports […]
AFP, JOURNAL DU MALI (Mali) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – Former Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won Mali’s presidency after his opponent conceded defeat late Monday. Former Finance Minister Soumaila Cisse, who had denounced electoral fraud during the first round, congratulated his rival on his victory in Sunday’s second round. Cisse told the AFP: “My family and […]
-Essay- RABAT – A year ago, Tuareg rebels from the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) decided to launch an attack to take back the territory of Azawad in northern Mali that they claim as their native land. They managed to chase Mali military troops from their land, but weren’t able to gain the upper hand […]
French and Chadian troops search for terrorist groups who melt into the landscape and launch suicide attacks in the towns. Initial plans for France’s rapid return home have been revised.
LES ECHOS, RTL, FRANCETV INFO (France) Worldcrunch PARIS – A video has been posted on YouTube showing members of a French family of seven, including four children, who were taken hostage last week by Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist sect. The three-minute video, which was posted on Monday, shows the French family – two men, […]
Italians teach locals in Burkina Faso both the recipe for pizza, and the formula for a successful small business. Is this how foreign aid is transformed into sustainable development?
NIAMEY – The small restaurant sits on the corner of two sandy streets in Niger’s capital city, Niamey. It is here, at Le Toulousain, that two Frenchmen were kidnapped by AQIM (Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb) on Jan. 7, 2011. The two young hostages – an aid worker and his friend – were killed during […]
-Editorial- PARIS – The problem with making statements when you are the President is that you have to follow through. Before the French intervention in Mali, President François Hollande said on Jan. 11 that in Mali, France had “no other purpose than to fight terrorism.” On Jan. 15, he revised his motives: now, on top […]
LE PARISIEN, LE NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR (France), THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch PARIS – French troops have taken control of the airport in the town of Kidal, one of the last major rebel strongholds in northern Mali. French Armed Forces spokesman Thierry Burkhard confirmed Wednesday that French troops had landed overnight in Kidal – the third biggest […]
MOPTI – Each dugout canoe that arrives on the banks of Mopti, unloads its passengers, cargo — and the latest news. In this dry and cold season, it takes a few days to reach Gao and Timbuktu, which are further up the Niger River. These two cities are now seeing a crucial phase of the […]
FRANCE 24, FRANCE TV INFO, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE (France), REUTERS Worldcrunch PARIS – French forces, supported by the Mali army have captured both the rebel strongholds of Timbuktu and Gao in a fast-moving offensive against Al Qaeda-linked fighters occupying northern Mali. Battling together to loosen the grip of Islamist fighters in the country’s north, French […]
AFP, FRANCE 24 (France), REUTERS Worldcrunch BAMAKO- Two weeks after the start of the French military intervention in Mali, the Ansar Dine Islamist militant group has split into two, with the dissident faction calling for peace negotiations. The dissident group is calling itself the Islamic Movement of Azawad (MIA) according to France 24. In a […]
The terrorist attack and hostage-taking in neighboring Algeria is just one of the ways that France’s intervention in Mali could spread across Africa, and beyond.
EL WATAN (Algeria), LE MONDE, AFP (France) Worldcrunch Two people were killed and as many as 41 Westerners were taken hostage in an attack Wednesday by an Islamist group at a gas treatment facility in Algeria. A British citizen and an Algerian are believed to be dead and six other people wounded in the assault […]
France’s just launched military intervention in Mali has earned the old colonial power praise from those fearing Islamist extremists. The fight, however, has only just begun.
FRANCE 24, LIBERATION (France) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – On the third day of the French-led “Operation Serval” to drive the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group MUJAO out of northern Mali, air strikes have been carried out Monday on Timbuktu and Gao, two key rebel strongholds. Four Rafales fighter jets pounded rebel training camps, logistic depots and infrastructure […]
LE MONDE, LIBERATION, FRANCE 24 (France) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – France has launched a military intervention in Mali, with President François Hollande declaring that the “terrorist groups, drug traffickers and extremists” in the northern part of the country “show a brutality that threatens us all.” In the declaration late Friday, Hollande added that the operation would […]
LE MONDE (France), SKY NEWS (Australia), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – The United Nations Security Council has approved an open-ended resolution authorizing military operation to secure northern Mali from terrorist organizations. The design of this gradual intervention, authored by France and to be led by African forces (Ecowas) and supported by the UN military, has […]
REUTERS, BBC NEWS (UK), WALL STREET JOURNAL (USA) Worldcrunch BAMAKO – Mali“s Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra announced his resignation on Tuesday, hours after being arrested by soldiers while trying to leave for France, reports Reuters. Diarra addressed the nation on national television saying: “Our country is living through a period of crisis. Men and […]
MENAKA – In a land far from Mali’s capital of Bamako, the houses are covered in rough cement, the streets in a reddish earth; the town is scattered with crumbling mosques and the dust sweeps through the sweltering heat. Opposite an enormous bazaar, there is another mosque, but this time, the men standing outside are […]
GULFNEWS.com (Dubai), EL WATAN (Algeria), FASO.net (Burkina Faso), BBC (UK), JEUNE AFRIQUE (France) Worldcrunch The situation in the north of Mali is provoking increasing anxiety in its neighbors. Fundamentalist Islamic rebels close to Al Qaeda have taken over the region, while the Mali government now controls only one-third of the country. The United Nations Security […]
In northern Mali, Islamist extremists are on a rampage, destroying Sufi Muslim shrines and historical treasures. In a Timbuktu library, a man has vowed to protect his precious manuscripts from the fundamentalist wrath that has taken over the city.
In the West African nation of Mali, the situation is rapidly disintegrating for large swaths of population as Islamist radicals intent on imposing religious law are spreading their power. On the ground in a nation in peril.