Sahel

Ivory Coast Says It Has Captured Jihadist Leader Behind Border Attack

Ivory Coast said it had captured a jihadist who led a deadly attack on a border post and arrested a 'very large' number of his subordinates.

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‘Capture Not Possible:’ France’s Desert Operation Against Al-Qaeda Chief

The French military, for the first time, provided details on Thursday of how late last week it 'neutralized' Abdelmalek Droukdel, the 'the third deputy' of Al-Qaeda's leader.

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About 10 Dead in Jihadist Attack on I.Coast Border Post: Security Sources

Suspected jihadists attacked a frontier post on Ivory Coast's border with Burkina Faso overnight, killing around 10 people, security sources said Thursday.

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Three Top Jihadists Dominate Sahel After Al-Qaeda Leader Death

Three leaders have been left dominating the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel, following the death of a top al-Qaeda commander in the West African state of Mali last week.

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Worried Togo Finds Itself on Front Line of Sahel’s Jihadist War

In a makeshift bunker of sacks of rice beneath a tree, heavily-armed Togolese soldiers keep watch over villagers coming and going on foot or bike across the border with Burkina Faso. Just a dried-out river bed separates the two West African countries. In surrounding fields, peasant farmers are bent silhouettes, watering the sorghum and maize seeds sown before the arrival of the first rains. Soon, clouds will chase away the fine dust of the harmattan, the desert wind that each year sweeps off the Sahara southwards to the coast and chokes the air. Nothing dramatic, or so it would seem, ever happens at Yemboate, in Togo’s far north. Yet less than 30 kilometers (19 miles) away, over the border in eastern Burkina Faso, jihadists and militia groups have imposed their own brutal law. Those policemen, doctors, and teachers who have not fled are being hunted down and butchered. “When I was small, we spent our time swimming in the river,” says farmer Abdoulaye Mossi, leaning on his bike with a hoe, speaking to AFP before the coronavirus pandemic. The arid channel separates his peaceful village of cob huts from a Burkinabe village on the other side. “Fear rules today,” the farmer says. But fear does …

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Burkina Faso security forces accused of executing 31 detainees in Djibo

Burkina Faso's security forces allegedly executed 31 unarmed detainees in the northern town of Djibo, Human Rights Watch said

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Sweden’s government proposes to send 150 troops and helicopters to Mali for Task Force Takuba

The Swedish government plans to send 150 special forces personnel and helicopters to join the new France-led Task Force Takuba in Mali

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UN Mali peacekeepers find Canadian and Italian kidnapped in Burkina Faso in 2018

A Canadian woman and her Italian partner kidnapped in Burkina Faso in 2018 were found alive in the northwest of Mali by UN Minusma peacekeepers

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A French A400M airdropped 40 tonnes of supplies to troops in the Sahel

A French Airbus A400M transport aircraft airdropped almost 40 tonnes of supplies to troops operating in the troubled Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa

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African Union plans to send 3,000 troops to the Sahel

The African Union said that it expected to send 3,000 troops to West Africa's Sahel region for six months 'during the course of the year'

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