Military juntas in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, according to a senior U.S. military official, are now experiencing “buyer’s remorse” after ousting U.S. and French troops over the past three years and, to varying degrees, accepting Moscow’s help fighting al Qaeda and Islamic State insurgents. “They’re starting to ask for help—the Malians in particular,” said…
About two decades ago, African nations launched an audacious plan: a 7,700km “Great Green Wall” to hold back the Sahara Desert’s southward march. Yet years passed and progress was stalled after being plagued by funding shortages, political instability and a lack of scalable solutions. China, now emerging with advanced ecological engineering capabilities, has stepped into…
For nearly a decade the French embassy in Bamako, the capital of Mali, was the political nerve centre of a counterterrorism operation that spanned five countries. The sprawling fortress still resembles a military base. But its guard towers and walls topped with razorwire are as much a relic of a bygone era as the French-built…