France expands military operations across the Sahel to chase down jihadist insurgents, as Mali opens peace talks with Tuareg separatists that have seized much of the country.
The Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) was blamed for a massacre of some 30 Tuaregs in a road ambush near the desert city of Gao in northern Mali.
Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) announced that they are ending their ceasefire with the Malian government following new clashes.
Gen. Amadou Haya Sanogo, leader of the March 2012 coup that plunged Mali into civil war, was arrested on charges of murder, conspiracy, assassination and kidnapping.
French and allied African forces launched a new offensive against Islamist rebels in northern Mali after a suicide attack on a checkpoint killed two Chadian soldiers.
A visit by a delegation of cabinet ministers from Mali’s central government to Kidal, the northern town held by Tuareg rebels of the MNLA, sparked a mini-intifada.
A UN mission formally took over from the African-led force in Mali—although most of the actual soldiers remain the same. France is to keep some 1,000 troops in the country.
A Malian government mission arrived in Kidal, stronghold of the separatist National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), days after the signing of a ceasefire.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in Niger that the attackers who carried out double suicide bombings on a military camp and uranium mine likely came from Libya.
Mali’s government and the MNLA, at odds over whether army troops will be allowed into the rebels’ northern stronghold for upcoming elections, will resume talks in Burkina Faso.
UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson warned that Burkina Faso is at risk of being destabilized by the conflict in neighboring Mali.
One year after Tuareg rebels briefly seized power in Mali’s desert north, they face hunger, ethnic attacks and rights abuses at the hands of French-backed government forces.
