标签： Africa

A wave of coordinated cross-country attacks has sent shockwaves across West Africa, triggering one of the most serious security and political crises to hit Mali’s military government since it seized power in 2020. On Saturday, residents across multiple Malian cities woke to the sound of gunfire and explosions, carried out by a rare tactical alliance between two armed groups: the Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). The assaults culminated in Tuareg separatist fighters securing full control of the strategic northern city of Kidal after joint Malian and Russian forces withdrew from the area, leaving the junta led by Colonel Assimi Goïta scrambling to respond.

Days passed before Goïta made any public appearance following the offensive, stoking widespread speculation about the stability of his rule and casting doubt on the effectiveness of Russian security support that the junta has leaned on since expelling French counter-insurgency forces from the country. Three days after the attacks, Mali’s presidency released images on social media showing Goïta meeting with Russian ambassador Igor Gromyko and visiting wounded attack victims at a local hospital, but the military leader has yet to issue an official public statement addressing the unfolding crisis. The most damaging blow to the junta’s ability to respond came with the assassination of Defense Minister Sadio Camara, a powerful figure within the ruling structure who served as Russia’s primary contact in Mali and the architect of the Russian mercenary deployment to the Sahel. Analysts warn Camara’s death will not only weaken military coordination for an expected counter-offensive but also strain the junta’s already fragile relationship with Moscow.

The FLA has already made clear its ambitions to push further south beyond Kidal, raising the stakes for the beleaguered Malian military. FLA spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane told the BBC that the separatist group has its sights set on the major northern city of Gao, claiming most of the city’s entry points are already under separatist control, with the historic UNESCO World Heritage Site of Timbuktu as the next target after Gao is secured. “It will be easy to take over once we fully control Gao and Kidal,” Ramadane said.

When Goïta’s junta seized power nearly six years ago, it rode a wave of popular support built on promises to end Mali’s decades-long persistent insurgency and security crisis. But over the past 12 months, the government has been pushed steadily onto the defensive, as JNIM expanded its campaign to include economic warfare through a widespread fuel blockade that has crippled military logistics. Now, with Kidal fallen and armed groups advancing south, the future of military rule hangs in the balance. While analysts note the military still retains control of major urban centers and core state institutions for the moment, the coming days will be critical as the junta attempts to launch a counter-offensive against the FLA-JNIM alliance. According to Beverly Ochieng, senior analyst at global risk consultancy Control Risks, the success or failure of that counter-attack will “determine the longevity of the junta.”

The fall of Kidal has also dealt a significant blow to Russia’s reputation as a reliable security partner in the Sahel, a region where Moscow has spent years expanding its influence through military partnerships after Western forces withdrew. After the 2020 coup, the junta expelled French counter-insurgency troops that had been deployed to support the Malian military, replacing them with Russian fighters from the Africa Corps to curb the growing insurgency. “Russia’s reputation has taken a huge blow” after the Africa Corps failed to defend Kidal, said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

In the wake of the security collapse, Mali is now widely expected to look beyond its exclusive reliance on Russian security support and diversify its military partnerships, analysts say. One potential new partner is Turkey, which has already built existing defense ties with Mali: Turkish drones played a decisive role in the Malian military’s 2024 recapture of Kidal, and there are already unconfirmed reports that Turkish security personnel have been deployed to train Mali’s presidential guard. Mali has also signaled a recent shift toward renewed engagement with the United States after years of strained relations. Earlier this year, Nick Hocker, head of the U.S. State Department’s African affairs section, traveled to Bamako to reaffirm U.S. respect for Mali’s sovereignty and outline a “new course” for bilateral relations, with plans to deepen security and economic cooperation with Mali and its fellow junta-led Sahel neighbors, Burkina Faso and Niger. The junta could also turn to the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a bloc of military-led governments formed by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger that has already issued statements of support for Mali, though the bloc has yet to operate as a unified joint fighting force.

For Russia, the crisis in Mali represents a major test of its broader regional strategy across Africa. If Russian-backed forces are seen as unable to protect a key ally like the Goïta junta, other pro-Moscow governments in the Sahel and beyond may reconsider their dependence on Russian security support, analysts warn.

Saturday’s coordinated offensive marks the most significant challenge to Mali’s military rule in years, and growing public discontent over the security failure opens the door to a range of possible outcomes. One potential scenario is a second domestic military coup, with a new faction of officers seizing power from Goïta’s administration. Another possibility is that the FLA-JNIM alliance could displace the current junta, though deep ideological differences between the two groups would complicate any long-term power-sharing arrangement.

The FLA positions itself as a Tuareg separatist nationalist movement, while JNIM is a committed al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist group. The two movements have had a fraught, on-again-off-again relationship dating back to 2012, when Islamist militants hijacked an earlier Tuareg separatist rebellion in northern Mali. While FLA spokesmen have described JNIM fighters as “cousins” who share a common enemy in the Bamako junta, FLA leader Sayed Bin Bella clarified to the BBC that there is no formal merger between the two groups. “All the flags we have raised are our own, not those of al-Qaeda. If they wish to merge with us, they must withdraw from the global al-Qaeda organisation,” Bin Bella said.

Ochieng notes that JNIM has in recent years downplayed the openly global jihadist rhetoric that defines core al-Qaeda ideology, opening the door to a possible power-sharing scenario similar to post-civil war Syria, where an al-Qaeda-affiliated group eventually rebranded and took control of large swathes of territory. Already, hard-line Islamist groups have criticized JNIM for its tactical alliance with the secular separatist FLA, and analysts say underlying ideological differences are almost certain to become a major source of future tension unless the FLA secures full control of northern Mali and distances itself from national-level politics in Bamako.

A brazen assault on a military convoy carrying civilian travelers in northeastern Ghana has left multiple people dead, and launched a full official investigation into the attack by the country’s armed forces. The deadly confrontation unfolded on a high-risk highway near Binduri, as the military escort moved between the urban centers of Bawku and Bolga with 140 civilians in its charge. When gunmen launched their attack, a fierce exchange of fire left seven of the assailants and three innocent civilian bystanders dead. Authorities have already taken 10 suspected attackers into custody, as search operations continue for other individuals linked to the assault. Security forces have also recovered a G3 automatic rifle, two fully loaded magazines and an assortment of extra ammunition from one attacker who attempted to hide in a local mosque after the clash.

The violence erupts from a decades-old chieftaincy dispute that has kept the region roiled in intermittent, unpredictable bloodshed. The conflict centers on competing claims to the traditional, influential regional leadership position from two local ethnic groups: the Kusasi and the Mamprusi. For years, the chieftaincy rotated between representatives of the two groups, but tensions flared into deeper division several years ago when Ghana’s Supreme Court ruled to uphold the Kusasi’s claim to the position. The ruling did not resolve the standoff, and instead fueled ongoing resentment that has repeatedly erupted into violent clashes.

To curb the persistent unrest, the Ghanaian government already reinforced the region with additional military deployments last year, a move that came after a wave of attacks on local schools put civilian communities at heightened risk. Beyond deploying additional troops, the government has implemented nighttime curfews across the affected area and launched coordinated joint patrols combining military and police forces to deter violence and respond quickly to flare-ups. In recent months, the influential Asante King has also stepped in to lead high-level mediation efforts aimed at brokering a lasting peace between the two rival groups.

The deployed troops have a second critical mission beyond quelling domestic intercommunal violence: securing Ghana’s long northern border with Burkina Faso. Neighboring Burkina Faso has struggled with a growing insurgency by armed Islamist militant groups for years, and security officials have documented repeated instances of these fighters crossing into Ghanaian territory to carry out attacks or evade counterinsurgency operations. The combination of long-running ethnic tensions and the threat of cross-border militant incursion has made the northeastern region one of Ghana’s most complex security challenges, and the latest deadly attack is expected to prompt renewed calls for both accelerated mediation and sustained security pressure to prevent further bloodshed.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — In a landmark ruling for victim justice Tuesday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) ordered a senior al-Qaida-linked extremist leader to pay 7.2 million euros ($8.4 million) in reparations for widespread atrocities he directed while leading the Islamic police in Mali’s ancient desert city of Timbuktu following the 2012 extremist takeover.

The defendant, Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, was convicted by the ICC last year on charges including torture, religious persecution, and multiple crimes against humanity, receiving a 10-year prison sentence. Judges confirmed that Al Hassan was a central architect of a brutal reign of terror that descended on Timbuktu after Islamic extremist rebels seized control of the city in 2012, leaving tens of thousands of residents harmed by systemic violence.

Presiding Judge Kimberly Prost told the The Hague-based courtroom that legal responsibility for the harm rests squarely with the convicted perpetrator. “Mr. Al Hassan, as the person found responsible for the crimes, which caused the harm to the victims, is the person financially liable for the cost of repairing the harm,” Prost said.

However, the court will not be able to collect the ordered sum directly from the 49-year-old, who was confirmed to be indigent before and during his trial, and was represented by a court-appointed attorney funded by the ICC. Instead, the ordered reparations for more than 65,000 identified victims will be disbursed through the ICC’s Trust Fund for Victims, a body established by the court’s member states to deliver compensation and support to those harmed by crimes falling under ICC jurisdiction.

Deborah Ruiz Verduzco, executive director of the Trust Fund for Victims, explained the body’s unique role under the ICC’s founding framework, the Rome Statute. “We are one of the many innovations of the Rome Statute,” Ruiz Verduzco told the Associated Press, noting that the fund exists specifically to address harm stemming from crimes within the court’s jurisdiction.

The fund’s 24-person team carries out a broad mandate: supporting victims and their families, developing community recovery programs in regions shattered by violence, and securing the financial resources needed to meet its commitments. In the fund’s 20 years of operation, this marks only the second time a perpetrator has been ordered to pay reparations — and only the first case where a court-ordered award will actually be distributed to mass victims. Previous payments from a perpetrator came in a separate earlier case.

ICC Presiding Judge Prost emphasized that significant targeted fundraising will be required to raise the full 7.2 million euro sum. The majority of the funds will be contributed by ICC member states, though the trust fund also accepts private donations from global supporters. Most recently, Germany donated 40,000 euros ($46,000) to the fund in March, and Sweden and the Netherlands stand as the body’s two largest national contributors.

While ICC judges oversee and finalize how reparations funds are allocated, they actively incorporate input from victims through their legal representatives and the trust fund. In Al Hassan’s case, the court ruled that the funds will be directed toward three core areas: socio-economic support for harmed communities, educational programs and vocational training for residents, and specialized psychological support for survivors. The ruling explicitly requires that programming prioritize women and girls, who faced disproportionate harm and gender-based violence during the extremist occupation of Timbuktu.

This is not the first time the trust fund has delivered recovery support to Timbuktu communities. In 2016, another al-Qaida-linked militant, Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, pleaded guilty to the war crime of destroying Timbuktu’s iconic historic mausoleums. The trust fund launched a restoration project for the ruined cultural sites in 2021, marking an earlier step toward recovery for the region.

The ruling comes amid ongoing widespread instability in the Sahel region of West Africa. Mali, along with neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, has faced a decade-long insurgency waged by armed extremist factions with ties to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. All three nations have experienced military coups in recent years, and their ruling juntas have expelled long-time Western security partners, most notably French counter-terrorism forces, and turned to Russia’s Wagner mercenary network for security assistance. The ICC’s decision was issued just days after an alliance of al-Qaida-linked militants and separatist fighters carried out the largest coordinated attack in Mali in more than 10 years, underscoring the persistent insecurity gripping the country.

KAMPALA, Uganda — A sweeping nationwide crackdown on unauthorized migration has led Ugandan law enforcement and internal affairs officials to detain more than 200 foreign nationals this week, with investigations linking many of the detainees to transnational human trafficking networks and organized cyber fraud operations, government representatives announced Tuesday.

The multi-location operation, which launched early Monday, unfolded across two key sites: a residential enclave in northern Uganda home to a large community of Nigerian migrants, and a tightly secured, closed-off residential compound in the heart of Kampala, Uganda’s capital. In total, 231 people have been placed in custody for questioning across both locations.

Officials with Uganda’s Ministry of Internal Affairs detailed that 169 detainees were discovered in the capital’s restricted compound, a self-contained apartment complex purpose-built to limit outside movement, complete with its own private restaurant and on-site amenities. Thirty-six of the people found at that site were women, and detainees held there held citizenship from across Asia and Africa, including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Malaysia.

The operation was launched following verified intelligence reports that large groups of foreign nationals were residing and working in Uganda without the mandatory legal documentation required for residency or employment, ministry officials confirmed. During the raids, many detainees were found to be in possession of no valid passport or identity paperwork at all.

In an official public statement, the ministry outlined the preliminary findings from the operation: “Some individuals have claimed they were trafficked into Uganda with false promises of formal employment. Others were directly engaged in cyber-scamming activities. A few were found in possession of materials linking them to additional other criminal enterprises.”

Simon Peter Mundeyi, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, explained to the Associated Press that the detainees are currently being held at two separate processing facilities and divided into three distinct categories for assessment: confirmed or suspected trafficking victims, alleged criminal perpetrators of trafficking and cybercrime, and migrants who simply overstayed their valid visas without engaging in any illegal activity.

Mundeyi confirmed that both trafficking victims and visa overstayers will be assisted to process voluntary departure from Uganda, though they will be required to cover the cost of their own return travel tickets. Suspected ringleaders of trafficking and fraud networks, by contrast, will face formal criminal prosecution in Ugandan courts before potential deportation following any completed sentence.

Unlike many regional peers, Uganda has long cultivated a reputation for being open to foreign arrivals and hosting displaced people. The East African nation currently hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing violent conflict in neighboring states including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and South Sudan. It also maintains a liberal visa policy that waives entry visa requirements for short-term visits from citizens of dozens of African and global countries.

Amid a fresh wave of armed conflict in South Sudan’s Jonglei State, thousands of displaced civilians trapped in an isolated, swamp-ringed village have been blocked from receiving emergency humanitarian aid by government officials, military and local authorities, according to eyewitness accounts and statements from leading international aid organizations interviewed by the Associated Press.

The crisis began in December 2023, when opposition forces aligned with Riek Machar — the long-time political rival of President Salva Kiir who was suspended from his post as first vice president and placed under house arrest last year over alleged subversion — seized multiple military outposts across Jonglei. Government counteroffensives the following month pushed thousands of civilians to flee their homes, many toward the remote settlement of Nyatim, a day’s walk from the contested town of Lankien. Among the evacuees was Thomas Nim, a 43-year-old pharmacist who trekked through swampland with his pregnant wife, three children and elderly mother to escape advancing government troops. “Some of the most vulnerable, like the elderly and children, ended up in Nyatim because they couldn’t make it any farther,” Nim explained to the AP.

Trapped in the desolate location with no access to clean water or sufficient food, displaced residents relied on a Starlink satellite internet connection to send out pleas for emergency assistance. Eyewitnesses report dozens of people have already died, many from apparent starvation, with residents reduced to foraging for leaves and wild roots to stay alive.

When international aid groups including Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) applied for official government clearance to deliver relief supplies to Nyatim, their requests were repeatedly rejected. “It was a ‘no’ from local and national authorities and from the military,” stated Yashovardhan, MSF’s South Sudan mission head, who uses a single name. WFP country director Adham Effendi confirmed the blockade, noting the agency had been blocked despite “numerous engagements with both national and local authorities” — an unusually public rebuke from an agency that has historically avoided public criticism of South Sudan’s government over aid access restrictions.

Both government and opposition representatives have traded blame for the ongoing crisis. Gatkhor Dual, an opposition aid coordinator in Jonglei, accused county commissioner James Bol Makuei of intentionally cutting off aid to the area because he believes Nyatim’s residents support the opposition. Makuei has countered that access is restricted because the population estimate of 30,000 cited by MSF is exaggerated, and claimed the main opposition group SPLM-IO is holding civilians hostage in the area to gain political leverage and attract aid near the county seat of government. But Nim, the displaced pharmacist who fled to Nyatim, denies any opposition military presence in the village.

While concerns over aid diversion are not unfounded in South Sudan — where armed groups on both sides have a long track record of seizing humanitarian supplies for military use, and the U.N. reports fighters looted more than two dozen aid-run health facilities during recent Jonglei fighting — the blockade has left thousands of vulnerable people with no source of life-sustaining support. Some residents have already abandoned the remote village and returned to their conflict-ruined homes out of desperation. “People are returning to their homes,” said Koang Pajok, one of those who left Nyatim. “There was no food and shelter.”

Delivering aid across South Sudan has long been a challenge, hampered by crumbling infrastructure, repeated attacks on river transport routes, and mandatory bureaucratic clearance from government officials. The ongoing crisis in Nyatim has deepened an already catastrophic humanitarian situation across the region: in the nearby community of Chuil, where the government has allowed aid access, MSF screening in March found more than half of 1,000 tested children were acutely malnourished. The aid organization has been forced to repeatedly expand its small treatment facility in Chuil from four beds to 100 to keep up with the influx of starving civilians.

Barred from overland or river access to remote areas, WFP has carried out airdrops of 415 metric tons of food to the Chuil region since March. But the arrival of aid has also drawn armed men with military weapons to the area, sparking fears the site could become a target for airstrikes. When a surveillance plane flew over the region in April, anxious civilians scattered, recalling that a similar overflight preceded a December airstrike on Lankien that killed at least 11 civilians.

The current crisis is the latest chapter in decades of cyclical violence in South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011 before descending into a civil war between Kiir and Machar that killed an estimated 400,000 people between 2013 and 2018. A 2018 peace deal formed a fragile unity government between the two rivals, but fighting has reemerged in recent months, with consistent reports that armed groups on both sides have weaponized aid to punish civilian populations aligned with opposing factions.

This reporting is supported by a grant from the Gates Foundation, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

In a devastating act of violence that has deepened concerns over persistent insecurity in Nigeria’s restive northeast, gunmen aligned with the Islamic State group have killed at least 29 civilians in a targeted assault on a remote village in Adamawa State, local government officials have confirmed. The attack, which the terror group has claimed responsibility for without outlining a clear motive, unfolded in the village of Guyaku, located within the Gombi local government area, and unfolded over the course of several hours, according to state authorities. Witness accounts and official reports detail that militants first stormed a local football pitch where community members had gathered for a public event, opening fire indiscriminately on unarmed civilians before launching a coordinated arson attack that destroyed dozens of residential homes, local places of worship, and hundreds of civilian motorcycles. In the wake of the bloodshed, Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri traveled directly to the attack site to assess the damage and meet with affected community members, sharing on-the-ground photos of his visit and condemning the violence as a fundamental “affront to our humanity”. In a public post shared to his Facebook page, the governor’s spokesperson captured the raw mood gripping the small, close-knit community, writing that “the atmosphere in the community remains tense, with grief and fear evident” following the carnage. Many residents, the spokesperson added, have already fled their homes in search of safer ground, driven out by widespread anxiety that follow-up attacks could target the area in the coming days. Governor Fintiri moved quickly to reassure the public in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, affirming that “We are intensifying security operations immediately to restore peace and ensure every resident feels safe in their home again.” The region where the attack took place, which sits along Nigeria’s porous border with Cameroon, has been plagued by near-constant violence linked to Islamist militant factions and local criminal gangs for more than a decade. The current wave of instability traces its origins back to 2009, when the jihadist group Boko Haram launched a full-scale insurgency focused on establishing an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. According to international aid organizations, the decades-long conflict has claimed the lives of more than 35,000 people and forced over 2 million Nigerians to flee their homes as internally displaced persons, while violence has spilled across national borders into neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. In recent years, Boko Haram has fractured into rival factions, with the larger breakaway group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), aligning itself with the global Islamic State network and carrying out regular attacks against civilian and military targets across the region. Earlier this month, Nigerian courts concluded mass trials that saw almost 400 convicted individuals handed down sentences for their ties to both Boko Haram and ISWAP, marking one of the largest crackdowns on militant affiliation in the country’s recent history. The latest attack comes as the Nigerian federal government faces mounting domestic and international pressure to rein in widespread insecurity across the country, with general elections scheduled for January drawing increased global scrutiny of the administration’s ability to protect civilians and maintain stability. Late last year, the United States launched what it described as “powerful and deadly” drone strikes against IS-aligned militants operating in northwest Nigeria, marking a escalation of international counter-terrorism cooperation in the region even as militant factions continue to carry out high-profile attacks against soft civilian targets.