Mali

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Moussa Tolofidie didn’t think twice when nearly 100 jihadis on motorbikes gathered in his village in central Mali last week.

A peace agreement signed last year between some armed groups and the community in the Bankass area had largely held, even if the gunmen would sometimes enter the town to preach Shariah to the villagers. But on this Sunday in June, everything changed — the jihadis began killing people.

BAMAKO/OUAGADOUGOU, April 24 (Reuters) - Fifteen soldiers and six civilians were killed on Sunday in attacks in Mali and Burkina Faso, neighbouring West African countries struggling with deadly jihadist insurgencies, military and security sources said.

Suicide bombers drove cars packed with explosives into three military camps in central Mali before dawn, the military said in a statement. Six were killed and 15 wounded at the Sevare camp, and five were wounded at two other locations.

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — West African leaders on Friday held another summit on Mali after imposing regional sanctions in January on the country after its military leaders said they would stay in power for four more years instead of holding an election in February.

The regional economic bloc known as ECOWAS invited the junta leader and transitional president of Mali, Col. Assimi Goita, to attend in person, but his office said he wouldn’t go in person but may attend virtually.

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Mali’s ruling junta is demanding the immediate departure of French and European forces, a day after France announced that it will withdraw its troops from the West African country.

“The government invites the French authorities to withdraw without delay,” Malian government spokesman Col. Abdoulaye Maiga said Friday on national television.

French President Emmanuel Macron made the withdrawal announcement Thursday, saying that it would take place over a six-month period.

BAMAKO, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Mali could set a new date for elections after leader Assimi Goita asked lawmakers to review a transitional charter adopted after the first of two military coups that have upended the country's regional standing and relationships.

The transitional council met on Saturday for an extraordinary session to review the transitional charter, which expires this month. Adopted following the coup that ousted late former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, it was supposed to pave the way for a return to civilian rule.

BAMAKO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Mali on Wednesday received a new batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by China in Bamako, the Malian capital.

Chinese Ambassador to Mali Chen Zhihong and Malian Minister of Health and Social Development Dieminatou Sangare attended the reception ceremony held at Bamako International Airport.

Dec 5 (Reuters) - The United States "strongly condemns" a militant attack on a bus in central Mali that killed at least 31 people and wounded 17, the State Department said on Sunday.

Unidentified gunmen on Friday opened fire on the bus as it traveled from the village of Songho to a market in Bandiagara, 6 miles (10 km) away. 

The villages sit in the heart of the Mopti region, an epicenter of violence in Mali fueled by insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

BAMAKO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Unidentified armed men attacked a convoy belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali on Friday, killing one civilian worker and wounding another, the mission said.

The convoy was travelling from the northern city of Kidal to Gao and came under fire about 100 km (62 miles) northeast of the town of Bourem, the mission said in a statement on Twitter.

BAMAKO, Oct 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Sixteen soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in an attack in central Mali on Wednesday, security and health officials in the war-torn Sahel state said.

   In a statement, Mali’s army said the troops had been the target of a “complex IED attack” — referring to an improvised explosive device — and then came under heavy gunfire shortly before 11:30 am.

   The army blamed the attack on suspected jihadists, and said that after pursuit, 15 of the assailants were killed and 20 motorcycles seized.

BAMAKO, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) peacekeeper was killed and three were seriously injured following the explosion of an improvised explosive device in the northeast of Mali, a UN official said.

The head of the UN mission, El-Ghassim Wane, announced Saturday on his Twitter account that it was a MINUSMA vehicle that hit an improvised explosive device near Tessalit of Kidal region.