Mali Insurgency

Kidnappings are common in Mali, which has been battling a security and political crisis since separatist insurgencies broke out in the north of the country in 2012.

In a 2013 speech claiming victory over jihadists in Mali who had seized the north a year earlier, French President Francois Hollande said that if it had not been for his nation's military intervention, "today we would have terrorists here in Bamako".

Malian troops killed several jihadists near the country's southern border with Ivory Coast and destroyed the insurgents' camp in a forest straddling the frontier, a Malian army officer said Thursday.

Mali's Tuareg-led rebel alliance prepared today to sign a landmark deal to end years of unrest in a nation riven by ethnic divisions and in the grip of a jihadist insurgency.

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said Sunday his participation at a massive rally in Paris against terrorism carried special significance as it came exactly two years after French troops launched an offensive against Islamists in his country.

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita named a former Head of government, Modibo Keita, as the new Prime Minister on Thursday after the previous government resigned, state television said.

Nigeria could cut the number of polio cases to zero next year and be declared free of the disease in 2018 even though a national eradication campaign has had to contend with an insurgency in the north, Bill Gates told Reuters.

The West African bloc announced plans on Saturday to increase cooperation with Central African states in the battle against "terrorism", amid fears of Boko Haram's insurgency spreading across the region.

French and Malian forces moving into far eastern Mali clashed with jihadist fighters in a spontaneous gunbattle on Wednesday, leaving a French soldier and about 10 insurgents dead, a French military spokesman said.

Malian troops foiled a second suicide bomber attack in the northern town of Gao late on Saturday, highlighting fragile security in zones recaptured by a French-led offensive that is hunting Islamist insurgent bases further north.

French and Malian forces fighting Islamist rebels took control on Saturday of the rebel bastion of Gao, the biggest military success so far in an offensive against al Qaeda-allied insurgents occupying the country's north.

Despite a punishing bombardment by French warplanes, al Qaeda-linked insurgents grabbed more territory in Mali on Monday, seizing a strategic military camp that brought them far closer to the government's seat of power.

Kidnappings are common in Mali, which has been battling a security and political crisis since separatist insurgencies broke out in the north of the country in 2012.

In a 2013 speech claiming victory over jihadists in Mali who had seized the north a year earlier, French President Francois Hollande said that if it had not been for his nation's military intervention, "today we would have terrorists here in Bamako".

Malian troops killed several jihadists near the country's southern border with Ivory Coast and destroyed the insurgents' camp in a forest straddling the frontier, a Malian army officer said Thursday.

Mali's Tuareg-led rebel alliance prepared today to sign a landmark deal to end years of unrest in a nation riven by ethnic divisions and in the grip of a jihadist insurgency.

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said Sunday his participation at a massive rally in Paris against terrorism carried special significance as it came exactly two years after French troops launched an offensive against Islamists in his country.

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita named a former Head of government, Modibo Keita, as the new Prime Minister on Thursday after the previous government resigned, state television said.

Nigeria could cut the number of polio cases to zero next year and be declared free of the disease in 2018 even though a national eradication campaign has had to contend with an insurgency in the north, Bill Gates told Reuters.

The West African bloc announced plans on Saturday to increase cooperation with Central African states in the battle against "terrorism", amid fears of Boko Haram's insurgency spreading across the region.

French and Malian forces moving into far eastern Mali clashed with jihadist fighters in a spontaneous gunbattle on Wednesday, leaving a French soldier and about 10 insurgents dead, a French military spokesman said.

Malian troops foiled a second suicide bomber attack in the northern town of Gao late on Saturday, highlighting fragile security in zones recaptured by a French-led offensive that is hunting Islamist insurgent bases further north.

French and Malian forces fighting Islamist rebels took control on Saturday of the rebel bastion of Gao, the biggest military success so far in an offensive against al Qaeda-allied insurgents occupying the country's north.

Despite a punishing bombardment by French warplanes, al Qaeda-linked insurgents grabbed more territory in Mali on Monday, seizing a strategic military camp that brought them far closer to the government's seat of power.