Mali

The UN Secretary-General has strongly condemned two separate attacks on Sunday against the organization’s Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) which left one peacekeeper dead and four others injured.

West African leaders meet in the capital of Burkina Faso on Saturday for a summit expected to lead to an overhaul of the flailing attempt to roll back jihadism in the Sahel region. Most of the heads of ECOWAS, a grouping of 15 countries on West Africa's coast and hinterland, are expected to attend the special one-day meeting, which will also be attended by Chad, Cameroon and Mauritania. Topping their agenda: the record of the so-called G5 Sahel -- … .

Reconciliation initiatives in central Mali, to bring together local leaders and end ongoing violence, have been welcomed by the UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Mali, Alioune Tine, who said on Monday that they should be supported “in whatever way possible.” The move follows warnings from the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, that central areas of Mali, especially around Mopti, are seeing an increased level of violence, including the killing and maiming of children.

According to the UN, so far more than 150 children have been killed in 2019 … The number of child soldiers in armed groups has doubled comparing to the same period in 2018, and more than 900 schools remain closed due to insecurity.

The United Kingdom is to send a contingent of 250 troops to Mali next year, to support the UN’s peacekeeping operation in the country, MINUSMA. A statement, released via the UK Ministry of Defence website on Monday, said that the soldiers were being deployed in recognition of increased instability in the Sahel region of North Africa, with the aim of delivering “long-term and sustainable peace in Mali”.

The EU's high representative Federica Mogherini pledged €138m extra to the G5 Sahel Force in order to be better equipped to fight insurgency and terrorism in the Sahel region.

Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing their homes in Mali, where deadly attacks on villages are destabilising an already critical situation in the country’s centre. More than 200,000 people have fled since the start of the year, almost six times the number that were displaced in the same period last year, according to the Rapid Response Mechanism, a tracking and alert system that helps humanitarian organisations respond to vulnerable people.

Islamist attacks are spreading so fast in West Africa that the region should consider bolstering its response beyond current military efforts, and donors should back such a move, the head of the United Nations said on Wednesday. Groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have strengthened their foothold across the arid Sahel this year, making large swathes of territory ungovernable and stoking local ethnic violence, especially in Mali and Burkina Faso.

The United Kingdom will keep its three Chinook transport helicopters in Mali for another six months, where they will continue to support the French-led Operation Barkhane counterterrorism operation. … The British helicopters bring to the Barkhane force the capability to carry, in a single rotation, up to 5 tonnes of cargo, or forty soldiers, from Gao to isolated sites.