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.
Workers went on a 72-hour strike at the Chinese-owned Somina uranium mine in northern Niger, demanding better wages and the release of unpaid bonuses.
Specious charges that the Tuareg still practice slavery are being used by Mali’s regime—and echoed by the Western media—to justify the mounting wave of ethnic attacks.
Some 100 US troops have been mobilized to Niger to establish a drone base, while across the border in northern Mali French-led forces face growing jihadist resistance.
The US military is preparing to establish a drone base in Niger along the eastern border of Mali, where French forces are currently waging a campaign against jihadist rebels.
In a mission slated to last two weeks, US Air Force C-17 transport planes are ferrying troops and material from France to Mali for the offensive against jihadist rebels.
With French troops fighting on the ground in Mali, jihadist militias advance on the capital, while Tuareg rebels pledge to re-establish a separatist state in the north.
