French aid worker Sophie Pétronin, freed a year ago after four years in the hands of jihadist militants in northern Mali, is back in Mali and missing again, FRANCE 24’s sister station Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on Tuesday.

Pétronin, 76, who ran a charity for malnourished and orphaned children in the desert city of Gao until her abduction in 2016, discreetly returned to Mali in March. The West African nation refused to issue her a visa for her return, but she eventually managed to enter the country by taking an overland route from Senegal, RFI reported.

Pétronin was reportedly unhappy in Switzerland, where she had been living since her release from captivity in October 2020, and wanted to return to the country where she had spent the last 20 years of her life. Sources close to the family told RFI that she was keen to be reunited with her adopted daughter.

Pétronin had always said she planned to return to Mali to continue her work.

More than seven months after her return, the Mali police issued a wanted notice for Pétronin on October 29, asking police to apprehend her, and to “escort” her to the capital Bamako.

Pétronin was reportedly last seen near Sikasso in the southeast of the country, more than 350 km from the capital Bamako.

But sources close to Pétronin told RFI that she hadn’t left Bamako since her return to Mali, and had never been to Sikasso. They are mystified as to why Malian authorities are searching for her.

French diplomatic sources have said that they are not interpreting the wanted notice as a “hostile act” from the Malian authorities, despite tense relations with France.

Source:  REUTERS

Hundreds of Malian protesters have taken to the streets in the capital, Bamako, to demonstrate against the French military presence in the West African country.

The protesters gathered in central Bamako on Friday, chanting anti-France slogans and calling for the total withdrawal of French troops from their country.

“We are here for Mali, we are here to demonstrate our national sovereignty. To remind the whole world that sovereignty belongs to the people and that those who have not understood this must get up to speed today,” said Mohamed Ousmane Mohamedoun, a member of Mali’s National Transition Council and a protest organizer.

“Because the transition for us today is the result of decades of mismanagement, misgovernance of our country and bad partnerships,” he added.

Mali has become increasingly engulfed in violence since a Tuareg uprising in 2012 was hijacked by extremist militants, who perpetrated ethnic killings and attacks on government forces and civilians despite the presence of French and UN troops.

Earlier in the month, Mali’s Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga said there is evidence that France has been training “terrorist” groups operating in the West African country.

A French mission began operating in Mali in 2013 to allegedly counter militants that Paris claims are linked to the al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorist groups.

This summer, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a gradual drawdown of France’s military presence in the Sahel and the end of the French military operation known as Barkhane.

Mali accused France of abandoning the conflict-ravaged country with the “unilateral” decision to withdraw troops. Mali’s military-dominated government then asked private Russian security companies for help in its fight against terrorism.

Ever since, tensions have been high between France and its former colony.

The French Barkhane force, operating in Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania, currently has 5,000 troops in the region.

Source: Presstv

France says one of its soldiers has been killed during a “maintenance operation” in northern Mali.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly said on Wednesday that non-commissioned officer Adrien Quelin “died [on Tuesday] following an accident that occurred during a maintenance operation in Timbuktu.”

According to French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal, an investigation is underway into the incident.

The latest death brings the total number of France’s fatalities in the Sahel region to 53.

A French mission began operating in Mali in 2013 to allegedly counter militants that Paris claims are linked to the al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorist groups. This summer, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a gradual drawdown of France’s military presence in the Sahel and the end of the French military operation known as Barkhane. The total number of French troops in the region is to be cut from 5,000 to 2,500-3,000 by 2023.

Mali accused France of abandoning the conflict-ravaged country with the “unilateral” decision to withdraw troops. Mali’s military-dominated government then asked private Russian security companies for help in its fight against terrorism. Ever since, tensions have been high between France and its former colony.

Last week, Mali said it had evidence that France has been training “terrorist” groups operating in the West African country.

Source: Presstv

The commander of multinational troops fighting Boko Haram has said at least 3,600 of the militants have surrendered since August. Nigeria-born Major General Abdul Khalifa Ibrahim spoke Sunday at the end of a visit to Cameroon.

General Ibrahim, commander of the four-nation Multinational Joint Task Force Commission, or MNJTF, says the number of militants escaping from Boko Haram is increasing by the day.

“I can tell you authoritatively from the beginning of August, about 3,000 Boko Haram members have surrendered. This is just within the Multinational Joint Task Force in Cameroon and in Nigeria,” he said.

He says it is suspected that an additional 600 militants who surrendered within the past two months to the Joint Task Force are former Boko Haram fighters.

Several thousand other defections were reported in May, when infighting broke out among Boko Haram factions after Boko Haram leader Aboubakar Shekau was declared dead.

MNJTF, headquartered in Chad’s capital N’djamena, is made up of more than 10,000 troops from Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria. Ibrahim says that since August, his forces have launched “ceaseless” raids on Boko Haram camps in the Sambisa forest and the Lake Chad Basin, causing confusion among militants.

The jihadists have not responded to claims that many militants are defecting. Boko Haram usually uses social media platforms to dismiss such claims.

Ibrahim was in Yaounde for a meeting of officials of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, from Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.

The general and various officials say the weakening of Boko Haram has allowed thousands of displaced people to return to their homes.

Midjiyawa Bakari is governor of Cameroon’s Far North region on the border with Nigeria. He says Cameroon is providing aid kits of blankets, mattresses, food and water to Nigerians who voluntarily return home.

“We have already accompanied more than 5,000 Nigerians who have gone back to Borno state and the head of state decided to hand to each refugee a kit to enable them, once in their land to start their lives.”

In September, more than 1,200 former Boko Haram fighters and their family members who escaped from the jihadist group to Cameroon had returned to Chad and Nigeria.

Mahamat Fadoul Mackaye is governor of Lake Province, an administrative unit in Chad.

Mackaye says Chad’s government is socially integrating militants and former fighters who are returning. He says his country is expecting foreign donors and funding agencies to provide financial and material support to develop localities destroyed by Boko Haram. He says since the death of Shekau, jihadist fighters have not had the courage to attack government troops.

Mackaye, however, said that remaining fighters of the jihadist group regularly attack villages for food.

The defections from Boko Haram do not mean the jihadist threat is going away. Lake Chad Basin member states accuse the Islamic State in West Africa Province, or the ISWAP, a Boko Haram splinter group, of infiltrating areas along the Cameroon-Nigeria and Chad border. Cameroon says ISWAP is trying to persuade civilians, especially youths, to join the jihadist group.

Source: VOA

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) says the Nigerian government and its Cameroonian counterpart met recently to plan ways to attack its members and the Ambazonia agitators in Cameroon.

IPOB alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government derives happiness in shedding the blood of innocent Nigerian people, and that he facilitated the meeting with the Paul Biya-led government in Cameroon, while hiding under claims it was for security and border control.

The separatist group, however, stated that there would not be peace in the sub-Saharan region of Africa until Biafra and Ambazonia agitators in Nigeria and Cameroon respectively get their sovereign nations.

 The pro-Biafra group’s spokesperson, Emma Powerful, disclosed this in a statement obtained by SaharaReporters on Sunday.

 In the statement titled, ‘Nigeria and Cameroon Jittery over Agreement between Biafra and Ambazonia – IPOB’, the Nnamdi Kanu-led secessionist group called on the international community to hold the governments of the two nations responsible for any attacks on their members.

 It also called on the European Union and other organisations to guarantee referendums for the separatist groups to break away from their mother nations.

 The statement read, “The global movement of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) ably led by our great leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is aware of the security and border meeting in Abuja between the two oppressive and terror sympathising countries, Nigeria and Cameroon. We know that both countries enjoy the spilling of the blood of their innocent citizens by both terrorists and security agents pretending to be combating insurgency.

 “The meeting in Abuja between both countries shows the fear of the agreement between Biafra and Ambazonia. The agreement between the two emerging nations has become a nightmare for Nigeria and Cameroon but unfortunately, there is nothing they can do to stop their emergence.

 “If Biafra was able to survive the 1967-1970 civil war and genocide by Nigeria supported by Cameroon, West African countries like Ghana and its security agents, we shall also triumph over whatever plot they hack against us now.

“Biafra and Ambazonia have been divinely ordained to come, and they are at the threshold. No antics of Nigeria and her partner in crime can stop Biafran and Ambazonia actualisation.

 “The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari and Paul Biya of Cameroon should be held responsible for whatever happens to Biafrans and the good people of Ambazonia and Biafra.

 “We are also calling on world leaders and the international community especially America, Israel, European Union and civilised nations across the globe to prevail on Nigeria and Cameroon to allow Biafra and Ambazonia to conduct their referendum to decide their fate.

“The independence of Biafra and Ambazonia and Biafra are the only things that can guarantee peace in the gulf of Guinea and the African sub-region because they are the countries that can guarantee peace in the region.

“We signed MOU for collaboration in our struggle for independence. We shall continue to work together as brothers and the oppressors understand our resolve to synergise, hence their morbid fear and anxiety. The agreement and MOU have come to stay and nothing can change it.”

Source: SaharaReporters

South Africa’s jailed former president Jacob Zuma has been placed on medical parole because of his ill health, the government’s correctional services department said on Sunday.

Last month prison authorities said Zuma, serving a 15-month sentence in Estcourt prison for contempt of court, underwent unspecified surgery at an outside hospital where he had been sent for observation. He remained in hospital with more operations planned.

The 79-year old’s eligibility for medical parole follows a medical report received by the Department of Correctional Services, it said in a statement.

“Medical parole placement for Mr Zuma means that he will complete the remainder of the sentence in the system of community corrections, whereby he must comply with a specific set of conditions and will be subjected to supervision until his sentence expires,” the department added.

Its spokesman Singabakho Nxumalo said that Zuma, who was imprisoned in early July, was still in hospital but could go home to continue receiving medical care. He gave no details on Zuma’s illness, his parole conditions nor whether his health had deteriorated since surgery.

Mzwanele Manyi, a spokesperson for the Jacob Zuma Foundation, said it welcomed the decision of the parole board and a more detailed statement would be issued after consultation with Zuma’s legal team.

Zuma was jailed for defying a Constitutional Court order to give evidence at an inquiry investigating high-level corruption during his nine years in office until 2018.

When Zuma handed himself in on July 7, protests by his supporters escalated into riots involving looting and arson that President Cyril Ramaphosa described as an “insurrection”.

(REUTERS)

The President of Guinea Conakry, Alpha Condé has been arrested by troops of the country’s Special Forces; Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from media sources in Guinea.

Information also filtered that gunshots were fired in Camayenne, a neighbourhood in Conakry. Witnesses say some top members of government have equally been arrested.

At least two people were injured during the heavy gunfire that broke out near the presidential palace in Conakry on Sunday morning, while military vehicles patrolled the streets.

The army has released photos of the 83-year-old President Alpha Conde who is presently under protective custody.

A military source announced that Alpha Conde was no longer in command and said the gunfire involved angry members of the Special Forces, an elite army corps.

This item is still developing

At least two people were injured as heavy gunfire broke out near the presidential palace in Guinea’s capital Conakry on Sunday morning, while military vehicles patrolled the streets, witnesses said and videos shared on social media showed.

It was not clear who was exchanging fire.

A senior government official said 83-year-old President Alpha Conde was unharmed but gave no further details.

A military source said the gunfire involved angry members of the special forces, an elite army corps. The source did not say what caused the anger.

Another military source said the only bridge connecting the mainland to the Kaloum neighbourhood, which houses most of the ministries and the presidential palace, had been sealed off and many soldiers, some heavily armed, were posted around the palace.

Three witnesses told Reuters they saw two civilians with gunshot wounds.

“I see groups of soldiers heading towards the presidency. There has been a lot of shooting,” said Ousmane Camara, a resident of Kaloum.

A Reuters reporter saw two convoys of armoured vehicles and pick-up trucks heading towards Conakry Autonomous Port, also near the palace. The convoy was accompanied by a white vehicle that appeared to be an ambulance.

Conde won a controversial third term in October after changing the constitution to allow him to stand again despite violent protests from the opposition, raising concerns of a backslide in a region that has seen coups in Mali and Chad in recent months. Footage shared on social media, which Reuters was not immediately able to verify, showed heavy gunfire ringing out over Conakry, and vehicles full of soldiers approaching the central bank, close to the palace.

“President Alpha Conde is doing extremely well… the situation is under control,” an ally of the president said in a video shared on Whatsapp.

Guinea has seen sustained economic growth during Conde’s decade in power thanks to its bauxite, iron ore, gold and diamond wealth, but few of its citizens have seen the benefits.

Critics say the government has used restrictive criminal laws to discourage dissent, while ethnic divisions and endemic graft have sharpened political rivalries.

(REUTERS)

During a visit to Cameroon, Nigerian officials Thursday asked for the return of more than 1,000 former Boko Haram militants to Nigeria. Hundreds of the Islamist group’s former fighters have surrendered in Cameroon since May, when the terrorist group’s leader was killed.

Umar Usman Kadafur, the deputy governor of Nigeria’s Borno state, greeted former Boko Haram militants at the disarmament center in Meri, a town near Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. He spoke with the militants in Hausa, a language used in northern Cameroon and southeast Nigeria.

Kadafur visited Cameroon’s Far North region on Thursday, and led a delegation of 14 Nigerian lawmakers, lawyers, administrators and rights group representatives, to negotiate the voluntary return of former Nigerian Boko Haram militants.

Among the former militants attending the meeting where Kadafur spoke was 34-year-old Kadir Hassan. Hassan said he escaped from the Sambisa Forest, a Boko Haram stronghold on the Cameroon-Nigeria border, in August.

Hassan said Boko Haram commanders deceived him in March of last year, saying he should leave Kukawa, a town in Nigeria’s Borno state, for a job. However, when he arrived in the Sambisa Forest, he was given a gun instead of the job he was promised. He said since the death of the jihadist group’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, in May, several hundred fighters have been struggling to escape from the Sambisa Forest.

Hassan said he escaped alongside 35 combatants and surrendered to the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin that is fighting the jihadist group. The task force is made up of troops from Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria. He said the task force later took them to the DDR, or demobilization center in Meri.

Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region that borders Nigeria’s Borno state and is said to be an epicenter for jihadist groups including Boko Haram, says Cameroon has been overwhelmed with former militants since Shekau was killed.

“We have more than 1,000 Nigerians here, all of them from Borno state. At the end of the rainy season, they will go back home. We congratulate Governor Babagana Umara [of Nigeria’s Borno state]. He sent a commission here to accompany those Nigerians to go back home,” he said.

Bakari said the delegation from Borno state will register former militants who are planning to return to Nigeria voluntarily. He said heavy rains on the Cameroon and Nigeria borders make it difficult for the ex-combatants to return this week. Nigeria and Cameroon agreed to facilitate returns during a security meeting held from August 26 to August 28 in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Umar Usman Kadafur deputy governor of Borno state says the ex-militants will go back to Nigeria by November, when heavy rains are likely to decrease.

“I know your facilities are overstretched. We will try as much as possible to repatriate these surrendered Boko Haram members back to our land in Nigeria so that you [Cameroon] can have free space in the DDR centers and we remain grateful for all what you have been doing for our people,” Kadafur said.

In August, Cameroon said it was negotiating to return the ex-militants to Nigeria as the DDR centers in northern Cameroon were becoming overcrowded. Cameroonian officials said the centers host former militants from Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria.

Source: VOA

Hundreds of Boko Haram militants attacked a military post in southeastern Niger overnight, killing 16 soldiers and wounding nine more, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

About 50 of the Islamist militants were killed in the resulting combat in the West African country’s Diffa region and significant quantities of weapons were recovered, the ministry said in a statement.

The attack late targeted the town of Baroua, where thousands of residents had only just returned after taking refuge elsewhere following jihadist massacres in 2015.

The Boko Haram insurgency broke out in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, but violence frequently spills over into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon in the Lake Chad Basin.

In December, an attack blamed on Boko Haram killed 28 people and burned 800 homes in the Diffa region.

More than 6,000 people had returned to Baroua in late June under a programme to encourage around 26,000 inhabitants in the region to leave safer villages or UN camps and go back to their homes.

The authorities said they had beefed up security to provide returnees with greater protection.

The world’s poorest country by the benchmark of the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), Niger is facing jihadist attacks on two borders, with Islamist militants also carrying out cross-border raids from neighbouring Mali.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)