Mali

Without providing an explanation, the U.S. Navy (USN) has postponed the Article 32 hearing of the two SEAL Team 6 operators and the two Marine Raiders accused in the murder of a Green Beret in Mali in 2017. The names of the operators, however, have been released. The SEAL Team 6 operators are Chief Special […]

Abu Iyadh al-Tunisi, a senior al-Qaeda member and the architect of the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, has been killed in an operation by French forces, according to Menastream. The operation took place in El Aklé, nearly 186 miles northwest of Timbuktu, Mali, on the border with Mauritania. Abu Iyadh, an Afghanistan veteran, founded […]

Amadou Koufa, the senior member of the Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), is alive—despite French forces claiming to have killed him. The top militant commander purportedly died in a November 2018 raid led by French forces in the central Mopti region. French media shared the story that Koufa appeared “in a 19-minute-long video, answering […]

The European Union Training Mission (EUTM) in Mali has come under assault, attacked by gunmen and rocked by a pair of suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (SVBIEDs). The unknown attackers struck the Koulikoro Training Centre (KTC) on February 24 at about three o’clock in the morning. The assault involved two vehicles, packed with explosives, and […]

The night of September 11, 2012, the U.S. diplomatic post and the nearby CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, were attacked by Islamic terrorists. The ensuing two-day battle left four Americans dead: U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, State Department employee Sean Smith, CIA contractor and former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, and CIA contractor and former […]

Algerian Yahya Abu al-Hammam, a senior commander in Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) was killed in a special operation led by French forces. Yahya Abu al-Hammam ranked number two in the organization behind the Malian Tuareg Iyad Ag Ghaly. The assassination was conducted by French soldiers from the task force Operation Barkhane, an anti-insurgent operation in Africa’s […]

Over the course of the past several years, numerous high-ranking individuals have been taken captive by terror groups in Mali. Recently, two of them—the Guiré brigade commander, Mamadou Diawara, and the president of the Niono District Court, Soungalo Koné—both kidnapped by the terrorist group The Macina Liberation Front, have reportedly died due to illness while […]

Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) is a jihadi terrorist organization in the Maghreb and West Africa, formed by the merger of Ansar Dine, the Macina Liberation Front, Al-Mourabitoun, and the Saharan branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). It is the official branch of al-Qaeda in Mali, after its leaders swore allegiance to […]

Allow Russia to do as they please in Africa or partner with African leaders with a history of war crimes and a tendency toward genocidal behavior? That is the conundrum American military and diplomatic leaders face. Cameroon, specifically, is one of the better examples of the struggle between geopolitics and human rights concerns. Recently, General […]

In the latest attacks against the United Nations mission in the sub-Saharan nation of Mali (MINUSMA), two more blue helmets were killed and one more U.N. peacekeeper was injured in a separate improvised explosive device (IED) blast. The two blue helmets who died in the blast were from Sri Lanka. Several others were injured in […]

Burkina Faso, a once-peaceful country in sub-Saharan Africa, shares a border with Mali—and that’s a problem. Mali has experienced incredible violence and political instability over the years, which continues to pose a significant threat to the entire region. The two countries share a long and relatively unmonitored border, allowing jihadis to conduct cross-border operations whenever they see […]

Ireland will deploy its Special Forces unit, the Army Rangers, to Mali to support U.N. operations within the country. This a positive move for Ireland, as it will deepen ties with Europe and the U.N., and allows the elite Irish units to be truly tested in what is regarded as the most dangerous U.N. mission […]