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Gunmen free 21 prisoners in southern Mali town - justice minister
[AlAhram] Unidentified gunnies freed 21 prisoners in the southern Mali town of Banamba late on Sunday in what Mali's justice minister described as a "terrorist attack".Mamadou Ismael Konate said on Monday the six attackers had wanted to release "two terrorists" but said they had already been moved to another town. Konate said one prison guard had gone missing after the raid but he provided no further details. An army front man said the attack had occurred around 2100 GMT on Sunday. It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack but Islamist groups such as Ansar Dine ...a mainly Tuareg group that controlled areas of Mali's northern desert together with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO in early 2012... have stepped up their insurgency in Mali this year, carrying out more than 60 attacks on United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... and other targets since May and spreading south into areas previously deemed safe. "I heard gunshots as I was getting ready to go to bed around 2300," said Banamba resident Yacouba Doucoure. "Later I learned there was an attack against the army camp and the prison." The attack on the army camp could not be immediately verified by Rooters. A soldier for the U.N. mission known as MINUSMA was killed in an attack on a convoy in the Mopti region of central Mali on Sunday, MINUSMA said in a statement. Islamist groups hijacked a separatist Tuareg rebellion in 2012 to seize major towns in Mali's vast desert north and declare sharia, or Islamic law. Forces from former colonial power La Belle France drove them back a year later, but they have kept bases in remote desert locations. Gunmen kill five Niger soldiers as Mali insurgency spreads [Ynet] Heavily armed gunnies riding motor bikes and other vehicles raided a village and killed five soldiers in Niger near the border with Mali early on Tuesday, the interior ministry said, amid signs of a growing Islamist insurgency in the region. Dozens of attackers entered Banigabou, about 20 km (12 miles) from the frontier before dawn - gunshots rang out for two hours, said residents. The ministry did not name the raiders, though Islamist holy warriors based in Mali's desert north have been pushing south towards its capital and over borders in the fragile Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... into Niger and Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... . Posted by: trailing wife 2016-11-09 |
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