Africa

On September 21, the military junta that overthrew the Mali government of President Ibrahim Keita announced a transitional government. It is headed by retired Colonel Bah N’Daw, with junta leader Colonel Assimi Goïta as his vice president.

After a trip around South America, the USS Tripoli has arrived in San Diego and will be used to deploy Marines and their aircraft worldwide.

The America Class amphibious assault ship – the only one of its kind in San Diego – was virtually commissioned July 15 at its shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. The ship arrived in San Diego on Sept. 18.

LIBYA moved closer to reopening its battered oil industry after the state energy firm said it would resume exports, though only from fields and ports that are free of foreign mercenaries and other fighters.

The Head of the High Council of State Khalid Al-Mishri rejected Sunday the deal made by the member of the Presidential Council Ahmed Mitig and Khalifa Haftar’s son Khalid to resume oil production and exports, saying in a letter to the Presidential Council Head and members – two days after the deal was announced – that the deal violated Libyan Political Agreement laws.

The readiness to accept any decision of the Libyan government, except for the one in which Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar participates, was expressed by the plenipotentiary Minister of Defense in the Government of National Accord (GNA) Salah ad-Din al-Nimrush on September 20, learned BulgarianMilitary.com citing the press service of the Ministry of Defense in Tripoli statement.

Residents of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and eastern city of Benghazi have called for peaceful protests on Monday against “all forms of corruption” and the “toppling of all political bodies.”

Opposition from top political figures in Libya’s U.N.-backed government in Tripoli to a deal announced Friday to resume the country’s oil production appears to have put the agreement on hold, at least for the moment.

Bloomberg said the Head of the Presidential Council Fayez Al-Sarraj didn’t accept the deal reached between the member of Presidential Council Ahmed Mitig and Khalifa Haftar to lift the 8-month long oil blockade, according to a top aide of Al-Sarraj, casting further doubt on an imminent resumption of production.

Canadian company Tajiri Resources announced on August 20 that it had entered into an agreement with Sahara Natural Resources to begin drilling in Burkina Faso at the company’s exploration program on the Reo Gold project, located 130 kilometres west of the capital, Ouagadougou.