Mali

A Nigerian UN peacekeeper has been killed and another injured by unidentified assailants in Timbuktu, in northern Mali, the UN says. A separate incident in Tessalit left three Chadian peacekeepers injured. Nearly 200 members of the UN mission have died since it was set up in 2013, making it the deadliest peacekeeping operation in the world.

The foreign minister of Burkina Faso called Thursday on the international community to consider creating a counterterrorism coalition, like the ones for Iraq and Afghanistan, to better combat terrorism in Africa's Sahel region. The region currently has the G5 Sahel Joint Force, which includes troops from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. … "Regarding the urgency of the actions to be undertaken, the member states of the G5 Sahel cannot succeed alone," he said.

Repeated and increasingly sophisticated armed attacks in the Sahel and food shortages linked to last year’s severe drought, have reached unprecedented levels, putting the future of a “whole generation” at stake, three top UN humanitarian officials said on Wednesday.

At least 18 civilians were killed in two related attacks this week in central Mali, the United Nations MINUSMA peacekeeping mission said on Saturday, as the death toll from fighting between local hunters and herders continues to climb.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel started her tour of West Africa on Wednesday, a trip that will see her visit Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger for key talks over the next three days. The bulk of Merkel's visit will focus on security and supporting counter-terrorism efforts in the restive Sahel region.

Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita appointed finance minister Boubou Cisse as prime minister on Monday, days after the government resigned following pressure to respond to the vigilante massacre of about 160 Fulani herders which shocked the nation.

While international actors, through different mandates, pursue shared goals regarding the stabilization of Mali and the region and the implementation of the peace process, they have all tended to overlook the protection needs in central Mali, where intercommunal tensions have been aggravated by terrorism and counterterrorism dynamics.

Thousands rallied in the Malian capital Bamako on Friday to protest at the failure of the government and international peacekeepers to stem rising ethnic and jihadist violence, notably the massacre of around 160 villagers last month.

More than 60 civilians died in tit-for-tat clashes between communities in northern Burkina Faso recently, government said, the latest inter-communal violence afflicting West Africa’s Sahel region. Burkina and neighbouring Mali have seen a spike in ethnic clashes fuelled by Islamist militants seeking to extend influence over the Sahel, an arid region between Africa’s northern Sahara desert and its southern savannas.