Not a lot of news from Mali and CAR. Here are a few articles I’ve noticed from recent months. Two terrorist attacks this weekend.
9/19/14 – Wall Street Journal – Spare a Thought for This Little-Noticed Disaster – Charlize Theron calls attention to the humanitarian disaster in Central Africa Republic. She provides good background.
Decades of disaster was made worse by the armed group Seleka from the Muslim north overthrowing the government with plenty of horrible violence. The violent backlash from anit-Balaka drove Seleka out. Now the suffering is worse. A UN force of 10,000 troops and 2,000 police will arrive soon and (hopefully) settle things down. Her article calls attention to the terrible suffering and extensive need for humanitarian aid.
9/14 – See 3/8/14 article below.
10/4/14 – Bismarck Tribune – Niger to stay in Mali after peacekeepers killed – A group of gunmen used motorbikes to quickly approach a convoy of Niger troops. Nine peacekeepers died in the attack.
1/5/15 – WSJ – Islamic Militants Strike at Central Malian Town (no link) – On 3/8, I clicked on the link in search results which returned a message that the article is no longer available. One sentence description of article says there was an attack in a central Malian town.
3/8 – Bismarck Tribune – Mali: 3 dead in rocket attack on UN base in Kidal in north – Barrage of 30 rockets killed 3 and wounded 18. Attack was on a UN base in northeast Mali. Article says there is no claim of responsibility but the attack is similar to a previous attack on the base in September 2014 which Ansar Dine said they were responsible. This attack was on 3/8.
The day before, 3/7, a gunman shot up a restaurant in the capital city of Bamako. Five killed, nine wounded. A different militant group claimed responsibility for those murders.