BAMAKO – Gunmen abducted five Indian nationals in western Mali on Thursday, company and security sources confirmed Friday, highlighting the ongoing security challenges in the West African country. The workers were taken near Kobri while employed on electrification projects. A company spokesperson confirmed the kidnappings and said other Indian employees had been evacuated to the […]
MALI
Mali bans French-backed NGOs’ activities
Mali’s junta announced on Monday a ban on the activities of NGOs funded or supported by France, including humanitarian groups, amid a worsening row between Paris and Bamako. The West African nation’s interim Prime Minister Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga justified the move in a statement on social media, calling it a response to France’s recent halt […]
Passenger bus hits a roadside bomb in central Mali; 6 dead
Passenger bus hits a roadside bomb in central Mali 6 dead. A passenger bus struck a roadside bomb in central Mali, killing at least six people and wounding many others, authorities said Friday. The explosion took place Thursday in the village of Songo, 12 kilometers (7 miles) from Bandiagara, said local official Bachirou Tall. […]
Bomb kills two peacekeepers in northern Mali
BAMAKO: Two United Nations peacekeepers were killed and five were seriously injured Tuesday when their vehicle struck a bomb in northern Mali, the UN mission said. “This morning, an armoured vehicle in a MINUSMA supply convoy hit a mine on the Tessalit-Gao highway,” MINUSMA said. An official with the UN mission said both fatalities were […]
UN peacekeeper killed in Mali mine blast: UN
BAMAKO: A UN peacekeeper was killed by a mine Sunday in restive northern Mali as he was participating in a patrol, the head of the UN’s MINUSMA Mali force El Ghassim Wane tweeted. The peacekeeper was part of the Guinean contingent in MINUSMA, a MINUSMA official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “He was first […]
New attack near Niger’s Mali border kills 18 civilians
A fresh attack in western Niger near the border with Mali has left 18 civilians dead, a local elected official said Thursday. The attack Wednesday was in the village of Deye Koukou in the Banibangou area, where 14 civilians were killed Sunday — also by men aboard motorbikes, the official told AFP. He did not […]
Niger says 14 killed in attack near Mali border
Armed men on motorbikes killed 14 civilians in an attack on a village in western Niger, near the restive border with Mali, the government said on Monday. The attack on Sunday “targeted civilians, killing 14, including nine working in fields” at Banibangou, the interior ministry said. The area is prone to jihadist raids. One person […]
Man accused of trying to kill Mali president dies in custody: official
A man accused of trying to kill Mali’s military strongman Assimi Goita, the figure behind two coups in less than a year, has died in custody, the government said on Sunday. The suspect, whose identity has not been revealed, had been taken into custody following the assassination attempt after prayers for Eid al-Adha at Bamako’s Grand […]
Three Chinese, two Mauritanians kidnapped in Mali
Three Chinese nationals and two Mauritanians were kidnapped in southwest Mali on Saturday, the country’s armed forces said, in the latest attack in the war-torn Sahel state. Armed men attacked a construction site 55 kilometres (34 miles) from the town of Kwala, making off with five pick-up trucks and the hostages, Mali’s army said on […]
Interpol seeks arrest of son of Mali ex-president
Interpol issued an international arrest warrant Monday for Karim Keita, a son of Mali’s former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, over the 2016 disappearance of an investigative journalist, legal sources said. The red notice for Keita, himself a former influential lawmaker, was issued at the request of an investigating magistrate in the Malian capital Bamako, said […]