MINUSMA

Northern Mali’s armed groups capture Bourem, raising fears of renewed conflict and instability. Peace hangs in the balance.

Amid escalating extremist aggression and political tumult, Mali’s delicate path to stability is increasingly overshadowed by Al-Qaida-led insurgencies, government fragility, and an impending UN peacekeeping withdrawal.

The Swedish government is planning to send helicopters and 150 special forces operators to augment the French-led Special Operations Task Force in the Sahel, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said in a release. In January, SOFREP had reported that the Swedish government was contemplating the option and weighing the pros and cons.  “The government has decided […]

Mali: Terrorism Report  Background: The Northern Mali Conflict  On 16 January 2012, several insurgent groups began fighting a campaign against the Malian government for independence and greater autonomy for northern Mali, an area known as Azawad. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), an organization fighting to make Azawad an independent homeland for the Tuareg people, had […]

In light of recent events in Niger where four US Special Forces soldiers were killed, many people are wondering: who are these terror groups operating in Africa? How many terrorist groups are in Africa? There is no short story to the history of terrorism in Africa, and there have long been Islamic terror groups operating […]

In sub-Saharan Africa, trouble keeps expanding in the form of new branches of extremist terror and criminal organizations. The question today is: Who is the Islamic State in the greater Sahara? The easy answer to that question is they are an Islamic State affiliation, which means they fall in line with Al Baghdadi’s group in […]

Three United Nations troops were killed and five others were seriously injured on Sunday by an explosion in Mali, underscoring the dangers facing the four-year-old peacekeeping mission in the country. The forces were escorting a convoy around 7 a.m. along a road connecting the village of Anéfis to the city of Gao in northern Mali when […]

Author’s note: “They’re Still At War” will be a multi-part series dealing with underreported or fully ignored low- to medium-intensity conflicts around the world. Over the next few weeks, we’ll cover countries such as Central African Republic, Congo, Yemen, and others. The first part deals with Mali. France’s military intervention in Mali has been mostly over for […]

Since French combat forces gave way to the current 9000-strong United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, war has continued raging in the desert north of the country with no signs of peace on the horizon.