Mali

Implementation of the 2015 peace agreement in Mali provides the only pathway for stabilization there, the head of UN peacekeeping told the Security Council on Wednesday. Jean-Pierre Lacroix updated ambassadors on developments in the West African country, … . Despite slow starts and disagreements, both between and among the sides, the UN peacekeeping chief reported that progress has been achieved in Mali, such as the holding of an inclusive national dialogue which concluded in December.

The leaders of France and the G5 Sahel group of states have agreed to form a military coalition under joint command and to focus their counter-insurgency efforts against Islamic State.

France's president and his counterparts from the Sahel region are meeting to discuss military operations against Islamist militants in West Africa. BBC looks at the figures behind the conflict, … .

Heads of state from West Africa and France will be meeting in Pau, France on Monday, to find new strategies against jihadists in the Sahel. But resistance to the presence of French troops in the region is growing.

Twenty people were wounded on Thursday in northern Mali’s restive Kidal region, including 18 UN peacekeepers from Chad, in a rocket attack on a military base for U.N., French and Malian forces, a UN spokesman said.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said she supports sending more troops to Africa's Sahel. Although France already has a strong deployment, they've asked for support and Germany cannot "duck away" from the region, she said.

Malian leader meets representatives of political and rebel groups in a bid to find solution to rising violence.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou agreed on Thursday to propose a postponement to early 2020 of a meeting of Sahelian country leaders due to take place in France this month, the French presidency said. The decision to postpone the event, which was to address French military presence in the region as well as the fight against so-called jihadist organizations, follows an attack on a remote military camp in Niger.

The G5 Sahel countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – are confronted with multiple challenges. This report uses the International Futures forecasting system to analyse the likely development trajectory of these five countries to 2040 in agriculture, demographics, infrastructure, governance and education. It compares these prospects with the combined impact of a positive Desert Flower scenario and a dystopian Sahelistan scenario and presents recommendations for the future.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday demanded West African leaders dismiss growing anti-French sentiment across the region if they wanted France's military to continue its operations against Islamist militants.