The US accused Guinea-Bissau's top military official, Gen. Antonio Indjai, of plotting a cocaine-for-weapons deal with Colombia's FARC rebels—who were actually DEA agents.
A document found in a demolished building in Timbuktu purports to reveal plans by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb to establish "command and control" over northern Mali.
Jihadist forces upon fleeing Timbuktu for the desert torched the Ahmed Baba Institute—a library housing a priceless collection of centuries-old Islamic manuscripts.
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.
The International Maritime Bureau hailed progress against Somali pirates, but urged the world’s navies to keep up the pressure—and warned of growing piracy off West Africa.
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.
France carried out air-strikes against Islamist rebels in Mali, helping government forces halt a drive southward by the militants who control the country’s desert north.
Military experts from Africa, the United Nations and Europe have drafted plans to retake control of northern Mali, as West African nations prepare a request for armed intervention.
