Category Archives: Mali

TikTok influencer killed in public ‘execution’ as Mali’s jihadist crisis worsens

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Mariam Cissé, who posted videos in support of ruling junta, received death threats before being abducted and killed

A TikTok influencer has been shot dead in front of a crowd by suspected jihadists in Mali, underlining how state control has been eroded in the west African nation.

Mariam Cissé often wore combat attire to post videos in support of the country’s military to more than 100,000 followers on TikTok. According to Yehia Tandina, the mayor of Timbuktu region, she was abducted in a market on Friday by unknown gunmen.

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How al-Qaida-linked jihadist group JNIM is bringing Mali to its knees

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Political instability and fuel shortages caused by rebel group is driving Mali to brink of becoming Islamist republic

Armed groups of JNIM fighters have blocked key routes used by fuel tankers, disrupting supply lines to the capital Bamako and other regions across Mali.

The al-Qaida-linked jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) is gradually converging on Mali’s capital, Bamako, with increasing attacks in recent weeks, including on army-backed convoys.

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Mali’s junta arrests generals and French national over alleged coup plot

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Development comes as the military continues to crack down on dissent after a pro-democracy rally in May

Mali’s military rulers say they have arrested a group of military personnel and civilians, including two Malian generals and a suspected French agent, accusing them of attempting to destabilise the country.

The security minister, Gen Daouda Aly Mohammedine, who announced the arrests on the local evening news on Thursday, told viewers an investigation was under way and that the situation was “completely under control”.

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Ancient manuscripts return to Timbuktu 13 years after jihadist takeover

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Malian city welcomes return of hundreds of crates of treasures after more than a decade stored in capital Bamako

Political and religious figures in Malian city of Timbuktu have welcomed the return of ancient manuscripts that were removed to the capital, Bamako, more than a decade ago to prevent them from falling into the hands of militants linked to al-Qaida.

According to a UN expert mission, jihadists destroyed more than 4,000 manuscripts and as many as nine mausoleums after occupying the desert city in 2012. Workers at the state-run Ahmed Baba Institute used rice sacks to smuggle the remaining documents out of the city a number of ways, including by donkey cart and motorcycle.

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US destruction of contraceptives denies 1.4m African women and girls lifesaving care, NGO says

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Incineration of $9.7m of contraceptives to lead to 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions, IPPF says

A decision by the US government to incinerate more than $9.7m (£7.3m) of contraceptives is projected to result in 174,000 unintended pregnancies and 56,000 unsafe abortions in five African countries.

More than three-quarters of the contraceptives (77%) were destined for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mali, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), an NGO global healthcare provider and advocate of sexual and reproductive rights.

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High-risk HIV groups facing record levels of criminalisation as countries bring in draconian laws

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Curbs on LGBTQ+ rights and a halt to US funding may reverse decades of progress in fight to end Aids epidemic, warns UNAids

People at higher risk of HIV, such as gay men and people who inject drugs, are facing record levels of criminalisation worldwide, according to UNAids.

For the first time since the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids began reporting on punitive laws a decade ago, the number of countries criminalising same-sex sexual activity and gender expression has increased.

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Al-Qaida affiliate attacks Mali army bases as junta struggles to contain jihadist threat

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Attack in Timbuktu comes as Islamist group JNIM claims separate assault near border with Burkina Faso

An al-Qaida-linked group has launched an assault on a Malian army base in Timbuktu, according to military sources and local officials, a day after it claimed responsibility for another attack near the border with Burkina Faso.

“The terrorists arrived today in Timbuktu with a vehicle packed with explosives,” a local official told Agence France-Presse. “The vehicle exploded near the [military] camp. Shooting is currently continuing.”

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Drone attacks killing hundreds of civilians across Africa, says report

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Calls grow to control military use of unmanned aerial vehicles which, despite claims of precise targeting, are claiming civilian lives

Almost 1,000 civilians have been killed and hundreds more injured in military drone attacks across Africa as the proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles continues unchecked on the continent, according to a report.

At least 50 separate deadly strikes by armed forces in Africa have been confirmed during the three years up to November 2024, with analysts describing a “striking pattern of civilian harm” with little or no accountability.

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At least 48 people killed in Mali goldmine collapse

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Rescuers still searching for victims at the illegally operated mine in the west of the country

At least 48 people have been killed in the collapse of an illegally operated goldmine in western Mali, authorities and local sources have said.

Mali is one of Africa’s leading gold producers, and mining sites are regularly the scene of deadly landslides and accidents.

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Malian singer Rokia Traoré to be extradited from Italy to Belgium

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Italy’s highest court rejects musician’s appeal after she was arrested in Rome in June over child custody dispute

Malian musician Rokia Traoré, who was arrested in Rome last June over an international child custody dispute, will be handed over to Belgium in the coming days after Italy’s highest court rejected her appeal, her lawyer said on Wednesday.

Traoré, 50, a former goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR, was arrested on 20 June at Rome’s Fiumicino airport under a European arrest warrant.

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British mining executives held in Mali released after $160m deal to settle tax dispute

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Resolute Mining chief executive Terence Holohan and two other employees had been detained since 9 November

Three British mining executives who had been detained by the government of Mali have been released and are “safe and well”, days after agreeing to pay $160m to settle a tax dispute.

Resolute Mining, an Australian company, said on Thursday its chief executive, Terence Holohan, and two other employees, who had been held in the country since 9 November, have been released.

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Extremist Timbuktu Islamic police chief sentenced to 10 years in jail by ICC

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Al-Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud had been convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity

The international criminal court has sentenced an al-Qaida-linked extremist leader to 10 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out when he headed the Islamic police in Timbuktu in Mali, west Africa.

Al-Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud was convicted in June of torture, religious persecution and other inhumane acts. Judges found he was a “key figure” in a reign of terror after Islamic extremist rebels overran the ancient desert city in 2012.

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Australian goldminer to pay Mali $160m to free detained CEO and executives

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Group were held after a meeting about what mining firm referred to as unsubstantiated claims regarding taxes and levies

An Australian goldmining company has agreed to pay $160m ($A247m, £126m) to Mali’s government after the west African country’s junta detained its chief executive and two other employees.

Resolute Mining’s chief executive, Terence Holohan, and the other two employees were detained on 8 November in Mali’s capital, Bamako, at the end of a meeting with government officials over tax and other state claims that the miner had previously said were “unsubstantiated”.

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Almost two dozen countries at high risk of acute hunger, UN report reveals

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Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, Palestine and Haiti rated at level of highest concern in latest six-monthly analysis

Acute food insecurity is expected to worsen in war-stricken Sudan and nearly two dozen other countries and territories in the next six months, largely as a result of conflict and violence, an analysis by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme has found.

The latest edition of the twice-yearly Hunger Hotspots report, published on Thursday, provides early warnings on food crises and situations around the world where food insecurity is likely to worsen, with a focus on the most severe and deteriorating situations of acute hunger.

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Jihadist assault on Mali’s capital killed scores of people, say security sources

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Attacks in Bamako claimed by al-Qaida affiliate cast doubt on junta’s ability to tackle 12-year insurgency

Scores of people reportedly died in a jihadist attack in the Malian capital on Tuesday, again raising questions about the junta’s capacity to tackle a 12-year insurgency.

Islamic militants attacked a number of locations in Bamako, including an elite police training academy. The violence, which the al-Qaida affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed to have carried out, led to the closure of the city’s airport for the day.

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Ukraine military intelligence claims role in deadly Wagner ambush in Mali

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Malian rebels ‘received necessary information’ to kill fighters from Russian military group last week, GUR says

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has claimed it was involved in an ambush that killed fighters from Russia’s Wagner group in the west African nation of Mali, thousands of miles away from the frontline in Ukraine.

A Telegram channel linked to the Wagner leadership on Monday admitted the group had suffered heavy losses during fighting in Mali last week.

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Support for democracy in Africa falls amid military coups and corruption

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Africans still have stronger preference for democratic governance than many other parts of the world

Support for democracy is falling in Africa amid a string of military coups and dissatisfaction with corruption and mismanagement, according to a report by Afrobarometer. However, Africans still have a stronger preference for democratic governance than many parts of the world.

Two-thirds of people in 30 African countries prefer democracy, surveys conducted in 2021 or 2023 found, down seven percentage points from a decade earlier.

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Ecowas warns of ‘disintegration’ as juntas split from west African bloc

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Breakaway union by military rulers of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger exposes growing fissures within the region

The Ecowas grouping of west African countries has warned the region faces “disintegration” after three military rulers cemented their own breakaway union over the weekend.

Parallel meetings of Ecowas, or the Economic Community of West African States, on Sunday in Abuja and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – comprising Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – in Niger’s capital, Niamey, on Saturday exposed growing fissures within the unstable region, pitting neighbours against each other.

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IS commander wanted for deaths of US forces in Niger killed in operation

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Malian state forces confirm death of Abu Huzeifa, who was believed to have helped carry out 2017 attack

A senior Islamic State group commander, wanted in connection with the deaths of US forces in Niger, has been killed in an operation by Malian state forces, the country’s army said.

Abu Huzeifa, known by the alias Higgo, was a commander in the group known as the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. The state department had announced a reward of up to $5m for information about him.

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Lethal heatwave in Sahel worsened by fossil fuel burning, study finds

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Deaths from record temperatures in Mali reportedly led to full morgues turning away bodies this month


The deadly protracted heatwave that filled hospitals and mortuaries in the Sahel region of Africa earlier this month would have been impossible without human-caused climate disruption, a new analysis has revealed.

Mali registered the hottest day in its history on 3 April as temperatures hit 48.5C in the south-western city of Kayes. Intense heat continued across a wide area of the country for more than five days and nights, giving vulnerable people no time for recovery.

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