Mali

Britain is deploying 300 troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali to help strengthen security and human rights there, its defense ministry said Thursday. The British troops will provide the UN mission with “a highly specialized reconnaissance capability, conducting patrols to gather intelligence and engage with the local population,” the ministry said.

Attacks in distant towns appear to be a rare attempt at a coordinated assault on international forces operating in conflict-hit country.

[…] Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix noted that counterterrorism efforts in the region have “actually intensified”. “We welcome the increased coordination of security players on the ground…for a more visible presence of defence and security forces in the region as well as stepped-up pressure on terrorist groups”, he said in his virtual briefing on the Joint Force of the Group of Five (G5) Sahel nations, namely Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. 

In Mali, violence in the areas to the south and east of Mopti is taking on an increasingly ethnic dimension. The transitional authorities should harmonise dialogue initiatives and strengthen state presence, while seeking to resolve substantial issues such as land disputes.

Less than a year after sending hundreds of extra troops to the Sahel, France is hoping to cut back its military presence in the restive region to make room for a stronger European commitment, army sources say.

Task Force Takuba will work towards containing the jihadist violence in Mali that has plagued the area since 2013.

France and Mali differed on Monday over whether to talk to jihadists to help end the Sahel state's eight-year-old insurgency, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian ruling the option out. During a news conference in the capital Bamako, Le Drian distinguished between engaging with armed groups which had signed peace accords, and "terror groups".

The world must act now to reverse the situation in Africa’s central Sahel region, where humanitarian needs are at “a breaking point”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told a high-level conference on Tuesday to address the burgeoning crisis. 

Dialogue may be possible with certain jihadist groups active in Africa’s Sahel region, but not “radical” ones such as the Islamic State (IS) group, UN chief Antonio Guterres said Monday.

[…] An Egyptian peacekeeper was killed, and another blue helmet seriously injured, when an explosive device hit a Mission vehicle in the Kidal region, located in the north.