Mali

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.

At least 23 people have been killed and 300 missing after an attack on Sunday on a village of Fulani herders in central Mali where communal violence has surged in recent months, a local mayor said.

Unidentified gunmen on motorcycles attacked two villages in central Mali, killing at least 41 people in a part of the country where ethnic reprisal attacks surged in recent months, a local mayor said.

The G5 Sahel force includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Niger as well as Mali, and people in Bamako do not want its headquarters based there.

Addressing the Security Council at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday, the head of the UN Mission in Mali, MINUSMA, said that amid ongoing violence, including scores of civilian deaths and deadly attacks on UN peacekeepers, a critical phase of the peace process had now been reached. Mahamat Saleh Annadif expressed his belief that the existing peace accord between armed groups and the Malian Government still provides opportunities for real progress, over the next six to 12 months.

Nearly 100 people were reportedly killed during an attack on a traditional Dogon hunters’ village in Mali on Sunday, prompting a call from UN chief António Guterres for authorities to act fast and “bring the perpetrators to justice”. … MINUSMA is currently deploying a special human rights fact-finding mission to investigate and bolster the Malian authorities in their judicial investigations.

The expansion of extremism shows the flaws in current strategies and the need to rethink regional responses.