Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by fighting in northern Mali and dozens have been subjected to arbitrary detention, extra-judicial executions or sexual violence including rape, Amnesty International reports.
While Tuareg rebels continue to claim to hold Timbuktu, an attack on the revered tomb of a Muslim saint by Ansar Dine militants shows jihadist factions have a free hand. UNESCO has issued an urgent appeal to protect the city’s cultural sites.
Sahelian governments and international aid groups are struggling to cope with both the continual arrivals of people fleeing the fighting in northern Mali, and the mounting number of hungry people across the region.
As junta-loyalist troops continue to fight soldiers who attempted a counter-coup in Bamako, Human Rights Watch charges that Tuareg rebels, Islamist factions and Arab militias alike are committing war crimes in Mali’s breakaway north.
Protesters in Benghazi have for days been blocking the entrance to the offices of Libya's biggest oil company, Agoco, to demand jobs for youth and greater transparency over public funds.
The International Criminal Court office of the prosecutor said it is monitoring the situation in Mali for potential war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by various armed actors since the Tuareg rebellion began.
Weeks after Tuareg rebels seized the northern half of the country (with its precious uranium deposits) no move has been made by Mali’s government to try to take it back—a sign that the state has in fact collapsed.
As the Libyan regime consolidates control over regional militias, Amnesty International warns of torture and killings of Black African detainees at militia-run camps. Fighting between Arab militias and Black Libyans continues in the country’s south.
A Libyan military commander filed a lawsuit against former UK Justice Minister Jack Straw alleging that the minister was instrumental in his illegal rendition to Libya, where he was tortured under the regime of Moammar Qaddafi.
As Mali’s new interim president Dioncounda Traore pledged a “total, relentless war” against Tuareg rebels that have seized the country’s north, Nicolas Sarkozy warned of a “a terrorist or Islamic state in the heart of the Sahel.”
Police in Tunis used tear gas and baton-charges against unemployed protestors demanding jobs and relief. President Moncef Marzouki decried the violence, but criticized the protesters for holding an unauthorized demonstration.
While Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) claim to control the north of Mali, a growing number of Islamist militant groups are also declaring power across much of the vast desert territory.
