Tag: Mali

Millions suffer ‘severe’ food insecurity in Burkina, Mali, Niger: rights group

  ABIDJAN, May 6, 2024 (AFP) – The number of people suffering from “severe” food insecurity in the military-ruled Sahel nations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has jumped to 7.5 million people, the US International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned on Monday. “The magnitude of severe food insecurity and related malnutrition continues to intensify in the region,” said the group that helps those facing conflict and disaster. “In the Central Sahel alone (Burkina Faso, Mali […]

Mali gold mine collapse kills more than 70

BAMAKO, Jan 24, 2024 (AFP) – More than 70 people have been killed after a tunnel collapsed at a Malian gold mining site last week, local sources told AFP Wednesday, the latest disaster in a region prone to mining accidents. Mali, which is among the world’s poorest countries, is one of Africa’s leading gold producers. Gold mining sites are regularly the scene of deadly landslides and authorities struggle to control artisanal mining of the precious […]

In Mali, power outages an exhausting part of daily life

BAMAKO (AFP) – The scene is replicated in towns across Mali almost every evening. Plunged into darkness by power cuts, people like Mamadou Haidara and his wife while away the hours sitting and talking, stuck in their sweltering homes. There is no electricity for a fan to freshen the torpid air, for a refrigerator to keep food and drinks cool or even for a charger to power up a dead phone. “I’ve bought quite a […]

Freed French journalist returns home to emotional welcome

  by Delphine TOUITOU with Camille LAFFONT in Niamey French journalist Olivier Dubois, 48, made an emotional return home on Tuesday following nearly two years in captivity in the Sahel, greeted by his family and President Emmanuel Macron at an airport near Paris. Dubois and 61-year-old US aid worker Jeffery Woodke, who was seized in southwest Niger in October 2016 — arrived in the Niger capital, Niamey, on Monday after being freed. Dubois stepped off […]

Ten million children in Africa’s central Sahel face ‘extreme jeopardy’: UN

  Ten million children in west Africa’s central Sahel region are now in “extreme jeopardy” and desperately need humanitarian help due to worsening violence, the United Nations warned Friday. The number of children in dire need of aid in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger is twice as many as in 2020, the children’s agency UNICEF said. Meanwhile a further four million children are at risk in neighbouring countries as battles between armed groups and security […]

Rights group says hundreds massacred in Mali by Islamic State jihadists

  Niamey, Niger | AFP | Armed groups affiliated with the Islamic State group have massacred hundreds of people in northeast Mali this year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday, adding the state was not doing enough to protect civilians. Tens of thousands of villagers from the Menaka and Gao regions have fled their homes after losing their livestock and belongings in attacks since March, the rights group said in a report. The abuses have […]

Thai doctor recounts Mali kidnap ordeal

Bangkok, Thailand | AFP | A Thai plastic surgeon on Thursday described drinking pond water to survive during three weeks of captivity at the hands of gun-toting kidnappers in Mali. Nopparat Rattanawaraha, who also runs a popular YouTube channel where he posts travel clips, returned to Thailand after being released on payment of a reported $150,000 ransom. The 49-year-old was back at work just a day after flying back to the kingdom, and recounted the […]

Mali welcomes lifting of ‘illegal, inhumane’ sanctions

BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Mali’s junta said Monday it was “satisfied” by the lifting of “illegal and inhumane” sanctions imposed by West African states in January after two coups in the country. The military-dominated government said in a statement it “notes with satisfaction a convergence of views that has allowed us to reach a compromise” that led to the lifting of the embargo against Mali. It thanked the Malian people for their “sacrifice and resilience” […]

Six soldiers killed, 20 injured in Mali ‘terror’ attacks

  BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Six soldiers were killed and 20 injured in simultaneous attacks targeting three army bases in central Mali Sunday, the Malian army said. Targets in Sevare, Niono and Bapho were all hit by “armed terrorist groups (who) used suicide vehicles packed with explosives”, the army said in a statement. A group linked to the firebrand preacher Amadou Koufa claimed the attacks, according to audio sent to AFP Sunday from a source […]

Mali interim leader ‘safe’ after assassination attempt

by Malick KONATE BAMAKO, Mali ( AFP) — Mali’s interim president Colonel Assimi Goita was “safe and sound”, his office said, after an assassination attempt by two men, one wielding a knife, during prayers at a mosque in Bamako on Tuesday. An AFP journalist who witnessed the attack said the assailants lunged at Goita, who was quickly whisked away by security. The journalist also said he saw blood at the scene, though it was not […]

US star Angelina Jolie visits refugee camp in Burkina Faso

  OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso – Oscar-winning actor Angelina Jolie on Sunday visited a refugee camp in Burkina Faso sheltering thousands of Malians who have fled jihadist violence in the region. Jolie visited the camp at Goudebou, in the northeast of the landlocked west African country, as part of her role as an ambassador for the UN refugee organisation, the UNHCR. Jolie arrived by helicopter accompanied by Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Alpha Barry for a ceremony […]

Mali president and PM resign after arrest by military junta

by Serge Daniel and Malick Konate BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Mali’s interim president and prime minister resigned on Wednesday, a top junta aide said, two days after they were detained and stripped of their powers in what appeared to amount to the country’s second coup in nine months. President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane, tasked with steering the return to civilian rule after a coup last August, resigned in the presence of mediators […]