s military coup in Mali was arrested on Wednesday and charged with kidnapping, hours after he was forcibly escorted from his home in the capital by soldiers. General Amadou Haya Sanogo led the March 2012 coup and is accused of systematically torturing and executing soldiers who questioned his rise to power. "Sanogo has been inculpated for complicity in kidnapping. Right now that is the only charge,"...
s a reminder that there are still links between the various groups. Rebels, terrorists and drug traffickers switch between Ansar Dine [another Islamist outfit], Mujao [the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa] and Aqim depending on circumstance," says Cheick Oumar Diarrah, the head of the ministry for national reconciliation and the northern regions. "There was an attempt to single out certain...
s questions (Cameron's crack at Labour's liaisons, 21 November), Michael White refers to the question I asked the prime minister and opines that I "had read somewhere that UK business investment lagged behind Mali and Paraguay. If you can believe that, you can believe anything. Meacher does. Cameron's contempt was understandable". The source I had quoted was the Economist. On 6 July it ran an article...
s "Signed in Blood" brigade and other jihadist groups burgeoning across the region, analysts say. "There was an operation launched by French special forces, and the group's number two commander was hit at some point during two days of gun battles," a Malian government official told The Guardian, adding that Malian officials were not informed prior to the attack. Another security source said elite French...
Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series ...
Contingent to be scaled down after upcoming general election as focus shifts to political process French forces are still holding the front line in Mali, and a huge operation launched last month is still under way. It is the first to deploy French forces, the Malian army and the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali against armed terrorist groups. It is a large undertaking,...
terrorist groups that refuse democracy' Two French journalists kidnapped and shot dead in northern Mali on Saturday were killed in cold blood by the "terrorists" that France is fighting in the west African country, the foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday. Ghislaine Dupont, 51, and Claude Verlon, 58, two highly experienced Africa specialists for the French state radio station Radio France...
I'm not making allusions' Marine Le Pen's public relations efforts to soften the image of the far-right Front National were dented this week after she caused outrage by questioning the beards and scarves worn by returning French hostages . Le Pen, whose party's trademark is speaking out against immigration and public displays of Islam, said the appearance of the four men who had been held captive by...
s door on the compound. Francoise would later tell Le Monde: "They burst in with Kalashnikovs. Daniel went out straight away, then they came for me in the bedroom and I was taken as I was: barefoot and in pyjamas. Daniel was already lying in the pick-up when I was made to get in. I've never seen his face like that, he never thought they'd take me too." Around 160 days later, in 2011, Francoise, who...
s flagship population report. If current trends continue, the number of girls under 15 having babies in this region is projected to increase from 1.8 in 2010 to 3 million over the next 17 years. This would take the estimated total number of under-18s giving birth in sub-Saharan Africa to more than 16 million by 2030, up from 10.1 million in 2010. The report , Motherhood in childhood: facing the challenge...