Ukraine sends peacekeepers to Mali for the first time

UKRAINE SENDS PEACEKEEPERS TO MALI FOR THE FIRST TIME

Ukrainian national staff consisting of 5 people joined the United Nations multidisciplinary integrated mission related to stabilization of situation in Mali for the first time. This was reported by Deputy Director of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Head Department of military cooperation and peacekeeping operations Colonel Valentyn Levchyk, as the press office of the Ukrainian Ground Forces informs.

According to Levchyk, 61 representative of Ukrainian national staff complete tasks in missions of the UN, NATO and joint peacekeeping forces in many countries.

Particularly, this is the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Congo Republic (12 people), UN mission in Kosovo (2 people), UN mission in the Republic of South Sudan (4 people), UN temporary security forces in Abyei (6 people), UN peacekeeping forces in Cyprus (1 person); “Strong Support” NATO training mission in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (21 people), multidisciplinary integrated UN Stabilization Mission in Mali (5 people) and joint peacekeeping forces in the Republic of Moldova Transnistrian region security zone (10 military observers).

“High evaluation from the international partners has become the basis of the stable invitation of Ukraine to participate in new and existing peace missions as well as for extension of geographical location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the peacekeeping activity all over the world,” Levchyk noted.

Suicide attackers injure one French 5 Estonian troops at Mali base

SUICIDE ATTACKERS INJURE ONE FRENCH, 5 ESTONIAN TROOPS AT MALI BASE

PARIS: Suicide bombers in a vehicle painted with UN markings injured one French, several Estonian troops and two Malian civilians in an attack on an international peace-keeping base in Mali, France’s military said Tuesday. The car bomb blast at the base — which is shared between the French military, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, and Mali’s armed forces — targeted the entrance to the French part of the camp on Monday.

French military spokesman Colonel Frederic Barbry told AFP that a “suicide vehicle” was used in the attack. “Two Estonian troops and one French soldier, wounded, remain hospitalised,“ he said, adding that their conditions were not life-threatening.

Estonia’s defence ministry said five of its soldiers had suffered injuries. Two Malian civilians were also wounded in the blast, according to the French military. “Two people were in the suicide vehicle, which bore the MINUSMA colours,“ Barbry said. He added that one attacker, dressed in a uniform resembling that of the Malian army, “was neutralised by the guards after exiting the vehicle, armed and making aggressive gestures”. The other was killed in the explosion.

A Malian security source had earlier told AFP that there were at least three suicide bombers in the car, which had been painted in the colours of UN vehicles. Malian authorities have struggled to improve security since France intervened in 2013 to drive back Islamic insurgents in the north. Large swathes of the West African country remain out of the government’s control.

Around 50 Estonian troops provide protection and security patrols for the Gao camp, which is the main base for the French Operation Barkhane. A year ago, French soldiers on patrol were targeted in Gao by a car bomb attack, which left four dead and around 20 civilians wounded.

Around 4,000 French troops are deployed under Operation Barkhane alongside the MINUSMA peacekeeping force of around 15,000 soldiers and police.

Senegal Sends 200 Soldiers to Mali to Support Peacekeeping Operation

SENEGAL SENDS 200 SOLDIERS TO MALI TO SUPPORT PEACEKEEPING OPERATION

Dakar, January 16, 2017. According to the digital portal Metrodakar. net. The Senegalese army sent today about 200 soldiers to support a peacekeeping operation in the center of Mali.

According to the sources consulted, the soldiers are currently in Mopti, a city where the Niger River joins the Bani, between Timbuktu and Ségou, in the central part of the African nation.

According to military spokesmen, the operation will mobilize no less than a thousand soldiers and aims at securing the area before the presidential elections this year.

The mission responds to a call by extremist Islamic elements in the Sahel to unite and confront the joint strength of the five countries of the region (G5), composed of troops from Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad, to confront the terrorist Islamic State in the area.

Senegal is not part of the G5 but will provide its contribution to preventing the spread of violence in the neighboring country, and prevent passage, to cross its borders.

18 PEOPLE HAD BEEN KILLED AFTER GUNMEN SEIZE A CAFE FOR HOURS IN BURKINA FASO

18 PEOPLE HAD BEEN KILLED AFTER GUNMEN SEIZE A CAFE FOR HOURS IN BURKINA FASO

United Nations: Gunmen stormed an upscale cafe overnight in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, strafing the building with bullets and barricading themselves inside for hours. By the time security forces reclaimed the restaurant around dawn Monday, at least 18 people had been killed and eight others wounded, according to local authorities.

The West African nation's communications minister, Remis Dandjinou, told reporters Monday that by daybreak, two of the attackers had been killed and several foreign nationals were among the dead. In separate statements, officials in Paris and Ankara confirmed the victims include a French citizen and Turkish citizen, while another Turk was injured in the violence.

While Burkinabe officials blamed Islamist militants for the attack on the Turkish cafe, no one group immediately claimed responsibility. "I salute the bravery of our security and defense forces whose engagement allowed us to neutralize the terrorists," Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in a statement. "The struggle against terrorism is a lengthy fight," he added. "That is why I am calling for vigilance, solidarity and unity of the whole nation to face up to the cowardice of our enemies."

In a news conference Monday, Dandjinou detailed the night's bloody events, which opened when he says about three to four militants rolled up to the cafe on motorcycles around 9 p.m. local time. They opened fire on an outside seating area outside then moved indoors, where The New York Times notes a family had been celebrating a 9-year-old boy's birthday.

The local newspaper reports the boy was hospitalized with injuries from the attack. For Burkinabes, the attack on Aziz Istanbul cafe, which is popular with foreigners, prompts bitter memories of another bloody episode just over 18 months ago. In January last year, militants conducted an hours-long raid on a luxury hotel and a cafe just blocks away from Aziz Istanbul, ultimately killing some 30 people before being dislodged by security forces.  Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, a militant group based in the region, claimed responsibility for that attack as well as another deadly assault just months before in neighboring Mali.

Islamist groups have been active for years in the Sahel region, which includes Mali and Burkina Faso. As groups linked to al-Qaida have carried out attacks in the area, the Times points out that the United Nations peacekeeping mission to Mali "has become one of the most dangerous in the world." The French government which controlled Burkina Faso, then called Upper Volta, as a colony until 1960 says President Emmanuel Macron met with Kabore on Monday to discuss the circumstances of the latest attack. The pair of leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to the formation of an international security force in the Sahel region to "continue the fight against terrorist groups."

AL-QAEDA-LINKED JIHADISTS CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR MALI RESORT ATTACK

AL-QAEDA-LINKED JIHADISTS CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR MALI RESORT ATTACK

An Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance claimed responsibility Monday for an attack on a tourist resort near Mali's capital that left five people dead, including members of a European Union mission to the country.

The Group to Support Islam and Muslims, a fusion of jihadist groups with previous Al-Qaeda links, said in a statement three of its "martyrs" had killed Westerners in Sunday's assault on the Kangaba Le Campement resort. The group, also known as Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen in Arabic, said the attackers were from the Fula ethnic group and battled for "many hours" at the popular eco-lodge near Bamako, which it termed a site of "debauchery".

Their statement was quickly picked up by extremist monitor SITE and two Mauritanian news agencies known for reporting on the region's jihadist activity, after being posted on the group's Telegram channel. Three foreigners, a Malian civilian and a Malian soldier were killed in the latest high-profile assault in north and west Africa targeting locals and tourists, including in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

Witnesses said EU and UN staff raised the alert to speed up the deployment of Malian and French special forces when the shooting began at Kangaba. Some assailants had shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), according to other witnesses interviewed. EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, speaking in Luxembourg, confirmed two of the victims were EU staff, a Portuguese soldier who was training troops in the Malian army and a Malian woman.

- INVESTIGATION OPENS -

Prosecutor Boubacar Sidiky Samake said other victims were a Chinese man, a Malian woman and a Portuguese man who died from bullet wounds, while a man from Cameroon died of a heart attack at the scene. Samake also announced that a criminal investigation has been opened and that Kalashnikovs, a pistol and ammunition had been retrieved from the site of the atttack.

At least four suspected jihadists have been placed in custody while four attackers were killed during the incident, Security Minister Salif Traore told. Traore said 36 hostages, mostly French and Malian, were freed, but around 20 members of Mali's Special Forces remained at the eco-lodge Monday.

Kangaba is known to be popular with expatriates. The Portuguese soldier who died was among off-duty members of the EU's army training mission in Mali, and of MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country. A Kangaba employee described ushering clients into a hiding place, a possible explanation for the relatively low death toll compared with the lives lost in previous assaults on tourist targets in west Africa. Among those saved Sunday were two Spaniards, two Dutch and two Egyptian nationals, according to the security ministry.

- US WARNING -

Domestic and foreign forces deployed in Mali's troubled north and centre have been repeated targets of jihadist forces, but attacks on civilians in and around the capital are rare, with the last major incident in November 2015 when gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako. Samake said Monday that the Kangaba attack "bore all the hallmarks" of the Radisson Blu assault.

That siege, which left 20 people dead, led to the government imposing a state of emergency which has been in place more or less ever since. Earlier this month, the US embassy in Bamako had warned about "a possible increased threat of attacks against Western diplomatic missions, places of worship" and other places frequented by Westerners. In January, Kangaba's owner Herve Depardieu had complained about the "alarming security information" issued by foreign consulates. In a sign of Mali's ongoing instability, one soldier was killed and three wounded on Monday in the northern town of Bamba, in what the armed forces said was yet another "terrorist attack".

- NEW ANTI-TERROR FORCE -

In 2012, Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda who hijacked an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising, though the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation in January 2013. Since then, jihadists have continued to mount numerous attacks on civilians and the army, as well as on French and UN forces stationed there.

The unrest has continued despite a 2015 peace deal between the government and Tuareg-led rebels that aimed to tackle some of the grievances held by separatists in the north. Despite the presence of the 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission and French troops serving in a separate counter-terrorism force operating across the Sahel region, instability is growing.

France is pressing the UN Security Council to quickly adopt a resolution to fund and support a new African anti-jihadist force in the Sahel, comprising troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Burkina Faso. But Washington says the resolution is too vague. As the leading financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, it also wants to tighten spending.

After paying homage to victims, African Union Commission (AU) Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat on Monday described "the crucial importance of the Security Council's support to the collective efforts of the countries of the region," referring to the proposed resolution. Mogherini, who has promised 50 million euros ($56 million) to back the new force, said Monday that Europeans and Africans were "brothers and sisters" in the fight against terror.