For months, Mali’s president, Ibrahim Boubakar Keita, has been hounded by a short, harsh refrain: Boua ka bla. In Bambara, the West African country’s most widely spoken language, the words mean, roughly, “The old man must give up.” In the context of Malian politics, they articulate a clear demand that Keita, who is 73, leave office when his term expires this year.
Reversing the escalating violence of militant Islamist groups in the Sahel will require an enhanced security presence coupled with more sustained outreach to local communities.
Highlights
Violent activity involving militant Islamist groups in the Sahel—primarily the Macina Liberation Front, the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, and Ansaroul Islam—has doubled every year since 2016. Employing asymmetric tactics and close coordination, these militant groups have amplified local grievances and intercommunal differences as a means of mobilizing recruitment and fostering antigovernment sentiments in marginalized communities. Given the complex social dimensions of this violence, Sahelian governments should make more concerted efforts to bolster solidarity with affected communities while asserting a more robust and mobile security presence in contested regions.
Cairo categorically refuses to let the coastal city of Misrata be turned into a base for Turkish naval vessels.
Egypt is showing its frustration with accelerating Turkish and Qatari moves in Libya in support of the Government of National Accord (GNA).
L’entrée du Mali dans l’ère démocratique s’est faite par un coup d’Etat qui a renversé le régime dictatorial du Général Moussa TRAORE en mars 1991. De cette date à nos jours, tous les présidents démocratiquement élus ont été emportés par un Coup d’Etat, excepté le Président Alpha O Konaré. À la seule différence des autres putschs, celui perpétré contre IBK en début de semaine dernière s’est effectué sans effusion de sang. Tout laissait penser que le Coup d’Etat a été négocié entre les différents corps de l’armée pour éviter un bain de sang.
The Head of the Presidential Council Fayez Al-Sarraj has received an invitation from the French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Paris, his media office reported Sunday.
Hundreds of protesters gathered on Sunday evening at the Martyrs Square in Tripoli, to protest the endemic corruption in the state, demanding accountability and the dismissal of those responsible.
Al Shabaab stormed the Elite Hotel in Lido Beach after breaching the hotel’s gates with an explosive-laden vehicle. At least four gunmen, plus the suicide bomber driver, were involved in the attack which killed nearly 20 people and injured another 43. A five-hour siege ended with assailants killed.The owner of the hotel, former Finance Minister, Abdullahi Mohamed Nur, was inside the hotel during the attack as well as other government employees. Al Shabaab often chooses soft targets like restaurants and hotels to attack government employees and policy makers. At the beginning of August, an al Shabaab suicide bomber targeted another seaside restaurant hosting government officials at Lul Yemeny Seaside Restaurant. A nearly identical attack to the Elite Hotel attack tactics occurred the week prior when al Shabaab suicide bomber targeted 12th April Somalian Army Brigade in the Wardighley District of Mogadishu.Via al-Andalus media, al Shabaab claimed credit for the attack, “Al-Shabaab forces waged amaliyat against a hotel owned by member of federal parliament.”
A military coup in Mali to oust the country’s political leadership has raised prospects of spiraling instability that could result in an opportunity for jihadist groups.
Over the past two days, Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s branch in East Africa, has launched two suicide assaults across Somalia. The first targeted a popular hotel in Mogadishu, while the second hit a Somali military base outside of Baidoa.
The head of the eastern-based and Khalifa Hafter-aligned Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG), Naji Moghrabi, announced in a televised address yesterday that they are lifting the blockade on the export of oil and gas already produced and in storage.