3 UN peacekeepers of Guinean nationality were killed and five others wounded during an attack by  Islamist militants in Kidal in Mali’s Kidal region, Al Jazeera reported.

The five soldiers were wounded in a mortar attack on their base by the militants and the three soldiers were killed in an ambush just outside the base.

Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin – including the Front de Liberation du Macina (FLM), Al-Murabitoun, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s (AQIM’s) Sahara branch, and Harakat Ansar al-Din – claimed responsibility for the attack.

An American drone aircraft supported a Somali special forces attack on a command post of the al-Shabaab terrorist organization on Sunday. According to military estimates, the operation wiped out the command post and killed eight al-Shabaab militants, like reported by breitbart.com.

“The strike was the first by the United States in Somalia under new authorities granted by President Donald Trump in March and was conducted in coordination with regional partners, the Pentagon said. It was a drone strike, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity,” Reuters reports.

There have been drone strikes in Somalia before, but President Trump’s expanded authorization allowed the military to carry out offensive strikes against al-Shabaab targets without seeking prior presidential approval. Previous strikes were considered defensive in nature, to protect personnel and facilities which came under attack, but the new rules allow U.S. commanders in Somalia to approve offensive strikes at the request of special operations advisers.

The Obama administration’s rules also demanded “near-certainty” that no civilians would be injured, while the Trump administration policy calls for “reasonable certainty.”

“It allows us to prosecute targets in a more rapid fashion. So that’s obviously something that we advocate for and if we were given that opportunity – given out those permissions and authorities – it will be very helpful to us,” General Thomas D. Waldhauser of the U.S. Africa Command explained in March.

Sunday’s target was prosecuted rapidly indeed. “On June 11, at approximately 2 a.m. eastern daylight time, the Department of Defense conducted a strike operation against al-Shabaab in Somalia. The operation occurred approximately 185 miles southwest of Mogadishu. The U.S. conducted this operation in coordination with its regional partners as a direct response to al-Shabaab actions, including recent attacks on Somali forces,” said the Pentagon.

Consultation and approval from the Somali government and the African Union are required for these offensive strikes. Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi declared he was pleased with the outcome of the operation.

“Earlier today, I authorized our special forces with the support of our international partners to conduct a strike against an al-Shabaab training camp near Sakow. The mission, which ended successfully, destroyed an important training camp where the group used to organize violent operations. This undermines their ability to mastermind more attacks,” Abdullahi said in a statement.

Al-Shabaab has perpetrated many actions that justify an aggressive military response, but the attack that probably inspired Sunday’s action was a brutal assault on a military base in the semi-autonomous Puntland region on Thursday. The official death toll from this al-Shabaab attack currently stands at 59.

Nigerian troops of 3 Battalion, 22 Brigade of the Nigerian Army on counter-terrorism duty with Operation Lafiya Dole rescued nine children undergoing training at a Boko Haram camp in Jarawa, Kala Balge LGA of Borno State, like reported by thebreakingtimes.com.
The troops also neutralized a large number of Boko Haram insurgents, including Abu Nazir, the sect’s leader in Jarawa during an operation. The minors have been evacuated and are being given preliminary humanitarian assistance in preparation to handing them over to Kala Balge IDP Camp Management Committee.

Over 100 peacekeepers have been killed in past months in Mali, making it one of the deadliest places for peacekeeping missions, like reported by ibtimes.co.uk

At least three United Nations (UN) peacekeepers from the West African country of Guinea have been killed in an attack by the jihadists in northern Mali.

The attack has also injured eight others, officials said on Friday (9 June) and added that the jihadists were yet to be identified.

Al-Qaida‘s affiliate in Mali that has claimed responsibility of the attack, targeted the UN camp with intensive rocket and mortar fire on Thursday, a statement translated by SITE Intelligence Group that monitors terror groups said.

“It resulted in killing and wounding a number of Guinean soldiers participating in this crusader alliance that invades this good land,” the statement said, adding that after attacking the UN officials, the radical group had also struck Guinean forces east of Kidal city.

Guinea has condemned the attack and called it “barbaric”. The government has expressed its condolences to the victims’ families in the capital city of Conakry.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN secretary-general, has also condemned the attack. He said in a statement on Friday that targeting peacekeepers “may constitute war crimes under international law”.

UN has deployed around 11, 000 peacekeepers in Mali to ensure the country’s stability. In the past months over 100 peacekeepers have been killed, making it one of the deadliest places for peacekeeping missions in the world.

In spite of ongoing France-led air strikes on the extremists’ hideouts, the rebels have managed to carry out several attacks. One of the recent attacks was in January, when a suicide bomber in a vehicle full of explosives attacked a camp in Mali, claiming lives of at least 77 people.

France has deployed its soldiers in Mali since 2013, when it launched an operation against Islamic extremists who had taken over the northern half of the West African country. It has sent around 4,000 soldiers to the region.

In cooperation with Somali security forces, the US conducted airstrikes against an al-Shabaab terrorist training camp in southern Somalia, the Pentagon said according to middleeastmonitor.com.

The airstrikes aimed to degrade the al-Qaeda affiliate’s abilities to recruit, train, and plot external terror attacks throughout the region and in America, said a Pentagon statement, adding that eight militants are thought to have been killed.

Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo confirmed that Somali special forces were also involved in the attack, some 298 kilometers (185 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, the capital of the Horn of Africa country.

“Earlier today, I authorized our special forces with the support of our international partners to conduct a strike against an al-Shabaab training camp near Sakow, Middle Juba region. This was a successful strike which destroyed a key al-Shabaab command and supply hub. This will ultimately disrupt the enemy’s ability to conduct new attacks within Somalia,” the president said in a statement.

He added, “I said when I took office that security will be top priority for my administration. This strike will enhance security and reduce the threats of al-Shabaab.”

The Pentagon added that the strike was conducted with authorities approved by the president this March which allow the US Defense Department to conduct legal action against al-Shabaab.

At least ten persons have been confirmed dead and as much as 40 injured as Boko Haram suicide bombers staged multiple attacks targeting mosques where Muslim worshippers were praying on Wednesday night, witnesses said like reported by premiumtimesng.com.

The attack occurred while soldiers were battling to repel another horde of Boko Haram insurgents who were trying to invade the city via the southern flank.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the attack on the Jiddari Polo area of the city, with the army saying it repelled the attackers ‘neutralising’ many of them.

Several residents in the Jiddari Polo area fled their homes during the attack, but were later asked to return by the army.

While the army may have repelled the Boko Haram in Jiddari Polo, the terror group appears to have succeeded at the Maiduguri-Gamboru, which lies on the eastern axis of the city. Boko Haram insurgents armed with deadly explosives found their way into different mosques in that area and detonated themselves while scores of Muslims congregated to observe Ramadan night prayers.

The total casualty has not been officially provided, but residents said about a dozen corpses were evacuated by rescue officials.

Abba Shehu, a private security personnel in Maiduguri, said he could not count the number of injured that were dumped on the corridors of the already filled accident and emergency ward of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital when he visited Thursday morning.

“It is a horrible sight we have here”, he said.

“I could not count the number of injured casualties at the accident and emergency ward; most of them sitting on the floor as the place is crowded and no bed to properly admit them.

“The incident happened at a mosque located opposite the Chad Basin Development Authority headquarters, where my parents live. When I had about the blast and I could not reach my parents, I had to rush down to the hospital to see those affected”.

A witness who lives at the Chad Basin Development Authority (CBDA) quarters, Alhaji Bashir, said there were four suicide attacks that occurred in different locations around the CBDA headquarters.

“The incident happened at about some minutes to 9 p.m. when we were about to round up the prayers”, he said.

“Suicide bombers came to our area and attacked four locations; one was a mosque opposite Chad Basin, one inside the Lake Chad Research Institute, another one inside the CBDA and one at Goni-Kachallari opposite the College of Agriculture.

“The injured casualty that we have now at the Teaching Hospital was about 37 persons from the four different location. About six persons were confirmed dead”.

He said the suicide bomber that attacked the CBDA quarters came at about some 8:45 p.m. and was sighted by the youth guarding the worshippers as he was walking quickly towards the mosque.

“The boys sighted him rushing to invade the worshippers, and one of the youth vigilante rushed to hold him.

“The bomb went off killing the suicide bomber and three other persons. That of the opposite Chad Basin came to a gathering of people at Coffee Vendor’s and detonated him. The explosion killed the bomber and affected a mosque and shops in the area.

“At the Lake Chad Research Institute, the suicide bomber invaded the quarters but met most of the houses locked up, so he managed to attack a house and killed himself and one other person. The one that occurred opposite the College happened as worshippers ended their prayers and were leaving, when a female suicide bomber went in to their midst and detonated the bomb, which killed her and one other person; many were also injured”, he said.

Boko Haram insurgents often use diversionary tactics like attempting to enter Maiduguri in large numbers in order to allow deadly suicide bombers sneak into the civilian population area to cause harm.

THE JIDDARI POLO INVASION

The Wednesday night attack on Jiddari Polo area started at about the time the majority Muslim residents were about to break their Ramadan fast.

Residents could not settle down for their meals as deafening sounds of shooting and bombs rented the air forcing dwellers of the suburbs at the outskirts of the town to flee into the city.

A witness, Yunusa Garba, informed PREMIUM TIMES on phone that his home was close to the major fighting point between soldiers and the insurgents.

“As I am talking to you, our neighborhood, which is not far away from the locations where the shooting was is filled with people that had to flee their communities as the Boko Haram arrived. They are all here, women aged men and children, all roaming the streets”.

He said some of the dislodged residents in the villages had earlier in the day alerted some security officials about a large assemblage of Boko Haram gunmen at a village named Alidawari, not more than 5km from Maiduguri.

“A report was taken to the security about the Boko Haram gathering at about 3 p.m., but nothing was done to that effect”, he said.

“But it was about three hours later that we learnt that the gunmen had attacked some of the small villages and chased all residents away. Most of the displaced residents made it to Maiduguri on foot”.

The Borno governor, Kashim Shettima, later visited the displaced persons on Wednesday night.

The attack on Alidawari, would be the first major assault by Boko Haram on Maiduguri in a very long time.

Security officials contacted by PREMIUM TIMES said it was too early to give a detailed account of what happened.

Th Borno State police spokesperson, Victor Isukwu, confirmed the incidents but was not forthcoming with details.

9 people were killed and 30 others were wounded when two children suicide bombers, described in media reports to be between 10 and 15 years old, detonated their explosives near camp for displaced people in the town of Kolofata, close to the border with Nigeria, in Cameroon’s Extreme Nord region, Reuters reported.

Wilayat Gharb Afriqiyya – formerly known as Boko Haram – previously used children to conduct similar attacks.

The first foreign visit of the new French President Emmanuel Macron, after a now habitual trip to Berlin, was to Gao in northern Mali as head of the French military.

The visit was an attempt to be seen as paying attention to the efforts of French troops in operations in northern Mali and other states of the Sahel region of Africa, like reported by ipsnews.net.

In March 2012, the West African state of Mali was effectively divided into two roughly equal halves, each about the size of France. The northern half was under the control of two rival Touareg groups with additional non-Toureg fighters coming from other Sahel countries and northern Nigeria.

The larger Toureg faction was the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA). It was larger than its rivals but less well armed. Its main aim was to create an independent state, to be called Azawad, the name for the area in the Toureg language. The leaders of the MNLA quickly declared the political independence of the area.

One Touareg rival was the Ansar Dine “defenders of the faith” which said it wanted to apply Islamic law to all of Mali. In addition to Ansar Dine, there were at least two other Islamist groups, largely composed of non-Malians: Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (known by its initials in French, AQMI) and Mujao (Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa).

The complicated tribal politics of northern Mali and neighboring Sahel areas of southern Algeria, Chad, Niger, and Mauritania has made unity of action difficult.

On January 10, 2013, with outsized ambitions and poor calculations of international reactions, the Ansar Dine and some related allies decided to move toward Bamako, the capital of Mali.

The Malian government cried for help. The French government, which has troops and war planes in neighboring states – all former French colonies – responded on January 11 of 2013 with planes destroying armed trucks, thus stopping the advance of the Islamists. French ground troops were flown to Bamako as a fighting, not only a training, force.

The well-trained and equipped French troops moved quickly to take over the cities and larger towns of northern Mali and much of the countryside.

The Islamist groups had no desire to fight the more numerous French troops, to which were added Malian forces and small groups of soldiers from other West African countries. Thus, Islamist forces largely melted into the civilian population. Some of the Islamists who were better armed moved north into mountainous areas to live in caves and secluded regions.

The Islamists have integrated a northern Sahel area in which there is an active trade in drugs coming from Latin America. Since cargo and persons coming from Latin America directly to Europe are suspected by officials of being involved in the drug trade, an African stopover has become standard.

Planes land in little used airports in Mali or other Sahel areas. The drug cargo is taken by road to ports and then shipped to Europe. Along the way, Malian civil administrators and military are paid to look the other way as the drugs go by. Since salaries are low and often paid late, not much additional pressure is needed to move the drugs. Along with drugs, there is an active trade in arms and in transporting people hoping to go to Europe to find work.

Looking to the north from Gao and Timbuktu to counter the drug and arms trade has left events to the south in Mali largely unnoticed, though trends there may have even more destabilizing consequences.

Due in part to the consequences of drought over the last five years, there has been a push south of the Peuls. (Peul is the single person, Fulani is the correct plural, but putting an s on Peul has become common usage).

The Peul, probably some 30 million strong are originally from the Sahel zone cutting across parts of Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and northern Nigeria. Due in part to the 1972-1983 drought, the Peuls started moving south into southern Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, all the way south to the Central African Republic.

Since the Peuls are cattle herders, there have always been conflicts with settled farmers as to when the cattle could come into fields after harvest, the use of water, and so on.

In areas where there has been long co-existence, rules have been worked out and dispute settlement mechanisms put into place. With the prolonged drought and new areas of occupation, the old rules and dispute-settlement mechanisms have not been able to cope. This is one of the factors in the armed conflict in Darfur, Sudan, although the Peuls are not directly there.

There seems to be an increasing Islamist current among the Peuls, creating insecurity and tensions both among the Peuls and between the Peuls and other ethnic groups.

It is difficult to know from outside what is the place of ideological tensions and what are due to socio-economic tensions and how the two may overlap. Emmanuel Macron’s flash visit to northern Mali – more of a public relations effort than anything – may usefully draw attention to an ever-widening troubled area.

The countries of West Africa’s Sahel region are requesting 50 million euros from the European Union to help set up a multinational force to take on Islamist militant groups, Mali’s military chief said according to premiumtimesng.com.

The vast, arid zone has in recent years become a breeding ground for jihadist groups, some linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, that European nations, particularly France, fear could menace Europe if left unchecked.

Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania, the so-called G5 Sahel countries, have proposed a regional task force designed to tackle the cross-border threat.

Implementation of the plan has lagged, partly due to funding obstacles.

“The council of ministers of the G5 Sahel countries is making a request to the European Union to financially support the deployment and functioning of the G5 Sahel Joint Force,” Gen. Didier Dacko of Mali said on Saturday.

He was speaking at a meeting in Mali’s capital Bamako between G5 Sahel military chiefs, EU diplomats and officers from France’s regional anti-militant force, Operation Barkhane, that aimed to map out what areas required assistance.

Sahel foreign ministers were due to meet on Sunday.

In 2016, the group proposed establishing special units, each composed of around 100 well-trained soldiers, capable of responding quickly to shifting threats, which would be deployed in areas where jihadist groups are known to operate.

They would complement the efforts of regular armed forces, UN peacekeepers in Mali and Operation Barkhane, which has around 4,000 French troops deployed across the five Sahel countries.

France spearheaded a 2013 military intervention that successfully drove back militants who had seized Mali’s desert north a year earlier.

However, militants continue to attack local security forces, UN peacekeepers and civilian targets across the region.

New French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Mali on his first trip outside of Europe in May, has reaffirmed Paris’s commitment to the region and called on Germany and other European nations to ramp up military and development aid.

French soldiers killed about 20 Islamist militants in Mali on Friday, France’s defence ministry said.

The announcement came a day after several French soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a mortar attack claimed by al Qaeda’s local affiliate on a UN peacekeeping camp in Mali’s north.

Fighters from Somalia’s al Shabaab militant group burst into a government official’s house in northeast Kenya and shot him dead late on Monday, police said.

The four attackers in military fatigues struck in Mandera county, a territory near Somalia’s border that has seen a string of al Shabaab raids in recent years.

“We suspect the attackers are militants since after the raid they escaped toward Somalia,” Edward Mwamburi, the head of the northeastern regional police force, told Reuters by phone.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the administrator of the county’s Omar Jillo area. But the militant group has said it will continue to attack Kenya until Nairobi pulls troops from an African Union peacekeeping force inside Somalia.

Al Shabaab, seeking to impose its brand of Islam in Somalia, blew up part of a hotel in Mandera in October, killing at least 12 people.

It also killed 148 students in Garissa University in April 2015, its biggest attack in Kenya in decades.