Sahel

About 7.5 million Nigerian voters are expected to vote in the presidential and legislative elections on Sunday, December 27. The 26,000 polling stations opened around 8 a.m. with a slight delay, and about thirty candidates are running to succeed Mahamadou Issoufou. Mohamed Bazoum, from the ruling Nigerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS), is one of 30 candidates to run in the first round on Sunday.…

An operation to combat arms trafficking networks taking place in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire led to the acquisition of tens of thousands of explosives, but also a large amount of dirty fuel, Interpol and the UN announced on Monday. The 260 men and women in the operation called KAFO deployed from November 30 to…

French General François Lecointre returned on December 12 from a two-day inspection visit to Niger and Mali, his seventh visit to the Barkhane Force's Operational Theater. The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces went to meet French soldiers and their partners from the Malian armed forces. The possibility of an overview of military operations one month before the anniversary of the Pau summit, 13 January, when a change in the format of French…

Nigerian General Oumarou Namata, commander of the G5 Sahel Joint Force, was in Paris on Wednesday, December 2. RFI could meet him exclusively. General Namata assures us that the joint force, three years after its creation, has now reached maturity in the fight against armed terrorist groups. If the military presence in the Sahel becomes international with the gradual arrival of the European Takuba…

The Congolese capital hosted an international conference on Tuesday 27 October to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Brazzaville Manifesto, the act by which General Charles de Gaulle designated this city the capital of free France during World War II. At least four African heads of state who participated took the opportunity to call for more solidarity to fight terrorism shaking the continent.…

France and Mali differ on Monday on whether or not to speak to jihadists to assist finish the Sahel's eight-year-old rebellion, with French International Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian ruling out the likelihood. Throughout a press convention within the capital Bamako, Le Drian distinguished between partaking with armed teams that…

When we talk about the Sahel zone, about sub-Saharan Africa, we imagine a desert zone without vegetation and especially without trees. However, a study by the CNRS has just shown that there are many more trees there than we thought. Observation of a region as large as four and a half times the size of France, with a resolution…

Jihadists have killed about 20 folks in assaults in three villages in northern Burkina Faso, the epicenter of a five-year jihadist rebellion, authorities officers stated Thursday. The assaults came about on Wednesday within the villages of Demniol, Bombofa and Peteguerse in Seno province, authorities spokesman Remis Fulgance…

A UN peacekeeping man was killed in northern Mali and one other severely injured after their automobile hit a roadside bomb on Thursday, the UN mission mentioned. The assault got here as officers within the capital Bamako protested in opposition to the federal government’s “selective launch” of overseas hostages in hostages.…

Last week, several Malian and international hostages were released in exchange for the release of several hundred prisoners. Among them are fighters involved in deadly attacks on the Malian army and two personalities considered leaders of the GSIM affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Sahel. For these releases, the discussions were bitter about certain names like Fawaz Ould Ahmed. Before he was arrested in 2016, this Mauretanian did a lot. Director of the al-Mourabitoune group, affiliated with Aqmi and founded by Mokhtar…