terrorism

The Somali authorities have announced that they have received a huge amount of sulfuric acid. In a brief message Wednesday, intelligence services said they had seized 79 tons. An item that, according to Mogadishu, was intended for the terrorist group Shebab. The smugglers have been arrested and will be brought to justice, the NISA agency said. A seizure announced three years the day after the bloody attack in October 2017, when the explosion of a truck bomb left more than 600 dead in Mogadishu. as reported from…

Less than a week after the release of Malian and Western hostages in exchange for more than 200 jihadist fighters or suspected ones, hostilities resumed in Mali.

Five days after the release of Soumaïla Cissé, Sophie Pétronin and two Italian hostages of the Islamist and Muslim support group linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in exchange for jihadist fighters, there are still many questions surrounding this exchange. We know a little more every day about released jihadists in return for the four hostages. We now know their number. Having long cautiously claimed that there were several dozen, we now know with certainty that they were more than 200. Two hundred and six is…

A military position in Sokoura, in the circle of Bankass, "was the subject of a terrorist attack" from Monday night to Tuesday, said the army, which reports a preliminary death toll of "nine dead" and wounded in its ranks ". A reinforcement sent to the scene then fell Tuesday morning into an ambush that left "three dead, ten wounded" and missing, according to the statement. as reported from Bamako, The Malian army faced two attacks. First, that of his camp in the center of the country, a few dozen kilometers from the…

For almost a week, the people of the village of Farabougou, in central Mali, have been living through a blockade imposed by the jihadists. No one enters or leaves the village. This blockade is combined with a jihadist attack that left at least six dead and 22 wounded, while nine other people are still in the hands of the same jihadists, according to residents. as reported from Bamako, It all started last week with the kidnapping attributed to the jihadists from about twenty civilians from the Malian locality…

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…

The release of the French hostage, Sophie Pétronin, put the spotlight on Westerners still being held in the Sahel. But next to them, there are also an unknown number of Malian and Sahelin hostages. Hostage participation of premises that are much less mentioned. This week, twenty people were kidnapped in the municipality of Farabougou, in the middle of the country. Nine of them were still selected this Sunday. These hostages, targeting anonymous Malians, are less talked about than Westerners or leading personalities such…

Several hostages in the hands of jihadists were released on Thursday. Among them the leader of the Malian opposition. Soumaïla Cissé was kidnapped in March 2020 in the north of the country while fighting for the legislative election. And that is the relief in Mali after his release. as reported from Bamako For Soumaïla Cissé, it's a first day of freedom. The leader of the Malian opposition has returned home since Wednesday night after more than six months in captivity. "Physically, I have no problem. I feel good.…

The plane with ex-hostages Sophie Pétronin has just landed at Villacoublay airport near Paris. The flight had started a few hours earlier from Bamako, Mali. Franco-Suisse spent almost four years in captivity in the Sahel. She was greeted by French President Emmanuel Macron. With our special envoys to Villacoublay, Marine from…

This release comes less than two months after the CNSP's military coup, the junta that brought down President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta. Yet it was under the old regime that the negotiations were actively launched, but the moment of effective liberation necessarily favors the current strong men in Mali. The release of Soumaïla Cissé in Mali had become a national, transpartisan, unifying cause. While this is clearly not the primary goal, the associated political gain is indisputable. But to whom can this success be…