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The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) confirmed this Sunday that two of its peacekeepers were killed Saturday evening during an operation in norther Mali.
According to a press release of the MINUSMA, unidentified armed individuals attacked the the UN mission convoy near Tarkint, norther region of Gao, around 7 p.m. on Saturday. Two peacekeepers lost their lives.
Mahamat Saleh Annadif, special representative of the UN secretary-general for Mali and head of the MINUSMA, strongly condemned these cowardly acts aiming to paralyze the MINUSMA's operations on the ground, according to the press release.
"We will have to combine all efforts to identify and apprehend those responsible for these terrorist acts, so that they can answer for their crimes in front of justice," Annadif concluded.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday stressed the need for continued international commitment to Mali, as the country continues to navigate the path to political stability while confronting numerous obstacles including terrorism and the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Building a politically stable and more secure Mali requires our collective and sustained commitment and MINUSMA's continued support. We owe this to the people of Mali and the Sahel region, who deserve a better future," Guterres told ministers and ambassadors attending the meeting.
The MINUSMA was deployed in 2013 to support political processes in Mali. During a failed coup in 2012, extremist militias took control of Mali's north. A UN-backed peace deal in 2015 between the government and various armed groups failed to stabilize the situation in the country's central and northern regions, with attacks multiplying in the past years.
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The African Development Bank (AfDB) says its COVID-19 emergency packages have reached five geographic regions in Africa.
The AfDB’s Communications and External Relations Department made this known in a statement on Saturday.
The bank explained that in west Africa, before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, West Africa was home to at least four of the continent’s fastest-growing economies, and it had felt the impact of the disease hard, as borders remained closed and economic and social distress deepened.
“Gambia, Mali and Niger will benefit from an ECOWAS support package to bolster national health systems in response to the pandemic. Much of the funds to this region will seek to address shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and other emergency equipment.
“The support will also enable governments to provide shortfall cash to the millions of people who have been affected by mass layoffs or are unable to work because of lockdowns.
“In the packages, Nigeria has 288.5 million euros, Senegal 88 million euros, Cote d’Ivoire 75 million euros, Cabo Verde 30 million euros and ECOWAS 22 million dollars.
“In the North African region, the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 60,000 cases as at 12 June. The disease has already triggered a sharp drop in household incomes in North Africa, as export and tourism earnings suffer.
“The region will be assisted with a series of emergency operations to boost containment measures and help to ensure the supply and distribution of laboratory tests and reagents. The package will also support national and regional coordination mechanisms.
“In the region, Morocco will get 264 million euros, Tunisia 180 million euros and Egypt 500,000 dollars.
“In East Africa, the continent’s fastest-growing region economically has been simultaneously struck by the coronavirus outbreak and an infestation of desert locusts, a double whammy for the region’s farmers and economies.
“In a region of climate change and water scarcity, post-harvest losses and poorly developed agricultural markets could threaten the promise of economic reforms and investment.
“Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda are the top-performing countries, which have all seen a sharp fall in tourism revenue. Kenya has 188 million euros” the bank said.
AfDB disclosed that measures had been taken across the South African region to contain the pandemic, which had affected millions of people, many of whom work in the informal economy.
It added that assistance to this region came in the form of preventive and protection measures as well as financial assistance to the vulnerable beyond the end of the epidemic.
According to the bank, Mauritius will get 188 million euros while Zimbabwe receives 13.7 million dollars.
The AfDB stated that in Central Africa, the package approved for this region, was 13.5 million dollars, which would target the provision of PPE, testing kits and healthcare and laboratory facilities.
It said the beneficiaries were Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, which is among the countries with the least number of ventilators on the continent and had 13.5 million dollars.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Bank announced a COVID-19 Response Facility that would provide up to 10 billion dollars to African governments and the private sector to tackle the disease and mitigate suffering from the economic downturn and job losses.
Edited By: Felix Ajide (NAN)
Malian Prime Minister Boubou Cisse on Thursday presented his resignation and Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita immediately reappointed him, according to the country's national broadcaster, the Office of Radio and Television of Mali.
Since taking office on April 22, Cisse is supposed to form a new government in accordance with the recommendations of the National Inclusive Dialogue (DNI), which proposed the formation of a government of up to 25 members in December 2019.
Cisse is the sixth head of government since Keita became president in 2013.
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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday stressed the need for continued international commitment to Mali, as the country continues to navigate the path to political stability while confronting numerous obstacles including terrorism and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UN chief was addressing the Security Council which held a briefing on the West African country, where a UN mission, known by the French acronym, MINUSMA -- the most dangerous place to serve as a "blue helmet" -- has been supporting the government since 2013.
"Building a politically stable and more secure Mali requires our collective and sustained commitment and MINUSMA's continued support. We owe this to the people of Mali and the Sahel region, who deserve a better future," Guterres told ministers and ambassadors attending the meeting.
As in the wider Sahel, terrorist groups and criminal organizations are expanding their operations in Mali.
Recent attacks in Mopti, in the restive central region, have left at least 100 people dead.
"I remain very concerned about the situation in central Mali, where terrorist activity continues to fuel violence among communities, taking a heavy toll on the local population," the UN chief said.
Though encouraged by government efforts to address the crisis, Guterres urged the Malian authorities to take greater action to combat impunity, which is essential to ending the violence.
"I would also like to highlight the need to bring to justice the perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers. One hundred and twenty-eight peacekeepers have been killed as a result of malicious acts, and not a single perpetrator has been held accountable," he said.
"I am appalled by allegations of summary killings and executions of at least 38 civilians by the Malian armed forces in two villages in Mopti region last weekend, in one case with the support of traditional hunters. I welcome the government's announcement to investigate these serious violations and I call on the authorities to do everything possible to hold the perpetrators of these heinous crimes accountable," he added.
The secretary-general also reported on progress in implementing the Peace Agreement signed in 2015 by the authorities and two coalitions of armed groups.
The deal came in the wake of conflict in 2012, which led to the occupation of northern Mali by radical Islamists, including the ancient desert city of Timbuktu.
In the past year alone, Mali has held an inclusive national dialogue, while more than 1,000 former combatants with the armed movements have been integrated into the national forces.
Reconstituted units are now in the north, marking the first formal presence of the army there since 2012, thus paving the way for greater state administration and other developments.
"The new parliament, currently in session, is expected to play a key role in enacting institutional reforms envisaged in the agreement, including through the holding of a constitutional referendum," the secretary-general said.
"These mostly positive developments are promising. I encourage the signatory parties to strengthen mutual trust and to work together to keep up the momentum in the peace process, which remains the only pathway to a politically stable and more secure Mali," he added.
Guterres underscored the various ways MINUSMA -- officially the UN Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali -- has been supporting the country.
MINUSMA assisted with the holding of legislative elections in March, which saw more women elected to office, though the secretary-general said there is still a long way to go.
MINUSMA has also joined national efforts to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, which threatens to increase the number of people requiring humanitarian aid to 5 million in the coming months.
The pandemic has also added to the UN mission's already challenging operating environment. So far, 100 personnel have contracted the disease, and two peacekeepers have died.
The escalating violence in the Sahel region has created one of the fastest growing displacement crises in the world, according to UN refugee agency UNHCR, which will launch an appeal on Friday to address the growing needs.
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The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved 20 million dollars in grant funding to build capacity to curb and stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in five countries. The funding, from the African Development Fund, is to achieve the purpose in Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. The bank’s Communications and External Relations Department disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday. It said that the operation would provide funding for the project which would also boost resilience of vulnerable communities, including internally displaced persons, refugees and their host communities, in the countries, also known as the Sahel zone’s Group of 5 (G5). It said the project would support epidemiological surveillance and case management capacity and make available medical products for COVID-19 prevention, control and treatment. This is to ensure the deployment of social protection measures in targeted communities, especially, internally displaced persons, refugees and their host communities, to strengthen food and nutrition systems. The bank said that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) would provide operational support for the project. “This operation will complement the development and humanitarian actions of the huge partnership of the Sahel Alliance Initiative and will support the most vulnerable. “An additional 1.372 million dollars of grant funding from the Bank’s Transitional Support Facility, will also be deployed in G5 countries to strengthen the delivery and coordination capacity of the G5 SAHEL Permanent Secretariat and support training on biosecurity and biomedical waste management in the concerned countries. “This extension of grant funding to the G5 Sahel zone countries falls under the framework of the Bank’s COVID-19 response facility of up to 10 billion dollars, which is the institution’s main channel to provide assistance to African countries to cushion the economic and health impacts from the crisis. “Recent CRF assistance packages have been directed to a group of Economic Community of West African states as well as to countries in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa zone and the Democratic Republic of Congo. “The region has been hit by COVID-19, if less hard than some other regions of Africa. As of June 6, Niger had recorded 966 cases, Burkina Faso 885, Mali 1,485, Mauritania 883 and Chad 836, for a total of 5,055 cases in the five countries. “G5 countries have begun to lift emergency measures that had been put in place to halt and contain the spread of the disease. The entire continent has seen 175,423 cases and 4,862 fatalities” the AfDB said. Edited By: Oluwole Sogunle (NAN)
The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has urged cowpea farmers in Nigeria to take advantage of the recent push to ban food importation to cultivate SAMPEA-20T.
SAMPEA-20T is the new variety of cowpea resistant to Pod Borer.
Dr Issoufou Kollo, AATF Regional Director for West Africa, said this in a statement by Nancy Muchiri, the Senior Manager, Communications and Partnerships of AATF, on Tuesday in Abuja
He said the foundation was working with the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to produce sufficient foundation seeds.
According to him, President Mohammadu Buhari at a recent media parley with journalists advised Nigerian farmers to increase their food production as Nigeria has ‘no money’ for food importation.
“I wish the farmers could go and stay in their farms so that we can produce what we need sufficiently so that we don’t have to import.
“In any case, we don’t have money to import so we must produce what we have to eat,” he said.
Kollo said that seed companies in the country could use for the production of certified seeds for farmers.
“We experienced some delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic but as soon as movement is allowed, we shall scale up our implementation plans to ensure that farmers get the seed before the planting season.
”The presidential advice that farmers should get back to farm and try to produce more for the country is very apt.
”We have just released our high yielding cowpea variety called SAMPEA-20T, if a good percentage of Nigerian cowpea farmers grow this variety this year, it will surely make a difference in closing the gap in the country’s annual cowpea deficit of 500,000mt,” he said while reacting to Buhari’s call.
Kollo said apart from ensuring that farmers had access to the seeds, the foundation has also concluded arrangements with extension agents to properly educate and guide farmers on how to plant the SAMPEA-20T to ensure that they got maximum benefit from it.
He said a comparison of SAMPEA-20T with conventional cowpea varieties showed that the average yield gain across all location in Nigeria was 581.5 kg/ha representing 73.5 per cent yield increased over conventional varieties.
“The SAMPEA-20T was resistant to the Pod Borer, it only needs two chemical sprays per cropping season as opposed to 9 -10 times that non-transgenic varieties need for a farmer to get at least 65 per cent yield.
”It is drought tolerant, resistant to Striga and Alectra, two notorious parasitic weeds and will contribute to addressing the national cowpea demand deficit of about 500,000 tonnes and improve the national productivity average of cowpea production,” he said.
Kollo said that Nigeria cultivated about five million hectares of cowpea annually making the country, the largest producer of the cowpea globally.
He said that the country, in spite being the largest producer had an annual deficit of 500,000 tonnes.
He said deficit was imported from neighbouring West African countries of Niger and Mali.
Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has called on the Federal Government to seek the review of the West African Protocols that allowed for free movement to stop herdsmen migration to Northern Nigeria.
Ganduje made the appeal on Saturday during the inauguration of 200 Ruga Housing Settlements at Dansoshiya village in Kiru Local Government Area of the state for Fulani cattle rearers.
According to him, there is need for the federal government to use the international blockage created by the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) to stop the migration of dangerous weapons carrying herdsmen to Nigeria.
“Such movements of the herdsmen always cause conflicts and destruction of human lives,” he said.
The governor urged the federal government to seize the opportunity of the COVID-19 pandemic blockage to act on migrating herdsmen.
“One can clearly see that these migrating herdsmen always move with dangerous weapons and are the ones causing conflicts in most places around the North and the nation at large,” he said.
The governor also invited herdsmen from across Nigeria to come to Kano and enjoy the bounties of his government’s new Ruga Settlements.
He noted that the settlement had all the basic infrastructure, including water, grazing reserves and milk processing factory and markets.
Ganduje expressed concern over the long sufferings of herdsmen whom, according to him, have suffered enough humiliation in Nigeria by way of loss of lives, stealing and rustling of their cattles and others.
He added that his administration had constructed four million litres of earth dams for the Fulani cattle rearers who would have no cause to move away in search of water.
He said that his government had earlier sent some 74 Fulani children to Turkey to study milk processing and other vital things that would help them to settle down at a place.
Ganduje reminded that a true Fulaniman was not known for violence but because of the alleged humiliation they were usually subjected to, they were being forced to retaliate.
“Today you see a Fulaniman doing robbery, kidnapping and other social vices, therefore the need for a Ruga Settlement for him is highly desirable,” Ganduje said.
He added that the irony of the whole thing was that a gallon of milk was costlier than a gallon of petrol, which clearly showed that an average Fulaniman was not poor, neither was he stupid.
”It further revealed that most of the dangerous weapons carrying herdsmen comes from Mali, Cameroon and other African nations,” he added.
Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, the Kano State Secretary of Miyetti Allah, Malam Zubairu Ibrahim, commended the governor for fulfilling his promises on the project.
He assured the governor that they would ensure proper utilisation of the project.
France said on Friday its military forces had killed al Qaeda’s North Africa chief Abdelmalek Droukdel, a key Islamist fighter that its forces had been hunting for more than seven years, during an operation in Mali.
“On June 3, French army forces, with the support of their local partners, killed the Emir of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Abdelmalek Droukdel, and several of his closest collaborators, during an operation in northern Mali,” French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly wrote on Twitter.
The announcement of the death of Droukdel comes almost six months after former colonial power France and regional states combined their military forces under one command structure to focus on fighting Islamic State-linked militants in the border regions of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
Droukdel was among North Africa’s most experienced militants.
He took part in an Islamist militant takeover of northern Mali before a French military intervention in 2013 drove them back and scattered fighters across the Sahel region.
Droukdel was believed to be hiding in the mountains of northern Algeria. Al Qaeda North Africa was the dominant jihadist force in the region, staging several high-profile deadly attacks until 2013, when it fractured as many militants flocked to the more extremist Islamic State as it seized territory in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
It remained active in North Africa’s largely desert and often scarcely governed Sahel region.
In Mali, it focussed its activities to the north in Libya and Tunisia. As Islamic State waned, it has sought to lure new talent from among IS veterans.
Parly said that French forces, which number about 5,100 in the region, had also on May 19 captured Mohamed el Mrabat, a fighter she identified as a veteran militant in the region and member of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.
“Our forces, in cooperation with their local partners… will continue to track these (people) down without respite,” Parly said.
Critics in the region have increasingly scorned Paris for failing to restore stability.
Anti-French sentiment has grown as militants have strengthened their foothold, making large swathes of territory ungovernable and stoking ethnic violence.
Parly said earlier this week that about 100 special forces from other European countries would be deployed to the region to support French and regional troops.
Edited By: Emmanuel Okara (NAN)/
Thousands of Malians staged a protest in Bamako on Friday to demand resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita over what they described as his mishandling of many crises plaguing the country.
Keita, re-elected in 2018 for a second five-year term, is struggling with a years-long security crisis in northern Mali, an outbreak of the new coronavirus and political tensions arising from a disputed legislative election in March.
Various political groups and human rights activists helped organise Friday’s demonstration, which had the backing of influential Muslim cleric Mahmoud Dicko.
“I’m here today to tell President IBK (the widely used initials of Keita’s names) that he is incompetent and that he cannot govern this country… He should resign,” Moussa Traore, an unemployed man in his 30s, told Reuters.
Some protesters brandished placards that read “IBK must go” and “No to bad governance”.
Police declined to give an estimate of the number of protesters, but the United States Embassy in Mali said on its Twitter account that approximately 20,000 people had gathered at Bamako’s Independence Monument at the start of the rally.
“The crisis in the north has worsened and spread to the centre of the country.
“There is no security, no jobs,” said Ben Adama Diarra, 33, a spokesman for one of the rally organisers.
“Everyday we record deaths (from the violence and COVID-19). Mali is becoming a large cemetery,” he added.
The Sahel nation, which has a population of around 19 million, has so far reported 1,485 cases of COVID-19, the lung disease caused by the new coronavirus, and 87 deaths.
Mali, which produces gold and cotton, has struggled to find stability since 2012 when jihadist fighters hijacked an insurrection by Tuareg separatists, seizing the entire desert north of the country.
French troops helped to recapture the north but violence persists, in spite of the presence of thousands of United Nations troops, with groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State stoking inter-communal tensions.
The Al-Qaida leader in the Islamic Maghreb had been killed by French forces in northern Mali, French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly said on Friday.
"On June 3, the French armed forces, with the support of their partners, neutralized the emir Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), Abdelmalek Droukdal, and several of his close collaborators, during an operation in northern Mali," said the minister on Twitter.
"Abdelmalek Droukdal, a member of the Al-Qaida steering committee, commanded all Qaida groups in North Africa and the Sahel strip, including JNIM, one of the main terrorist groups active in the Sahel," she added.
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