Mali
Niger political veterans to face off in presidential vote
Niger is the world's poorest nation, according to the UN's benchmark of development of 189 countries, and is struggling with jihadist insurgencies that have...
Unidentified militants attacked a temporary base near Kerena, a village in the war-torn centre of the Sahel state, at around 7 am.
Africa has so far recorded around 3.3 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 82,000 deaths, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The confrontation under the influence happened overnight from 24 to 25 December at a base in Gao in eastern Mali.
The landlocked Sahel country descended into violence in 2012 when ethnic Tuareg separatists launched an insurgency in the north of the country, which was then overtaken by an armed campaign by jihadists.
The 143 kilograms of gold was en route to neighbouring Guinea.
Mali is struggling with an Islamist insurgency that first erupted in the north but has since spread to the centre of the country, as well as spilling over into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Young army officers in the conflict-ridden Sahel state toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18 after weeks of anti-government protests.
Millions more will vote across the region - in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Nigeria - before the year is out, under the wary eye of defenders of democracy.
They former prisoners would "remain at the disposition of the courts if needed".
"As part of the negotiations to obtain the release of Soumaila Cisse and Sophie Petronin, more than one hundred jihadist prisoners were released this weekend."
Bah Ndaw said in a speech he would strive for 'a stable, calm and successful transition, in the agreed conditions and timeframe.'
Junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita said in a televised statement that former defence minister Bah Ndaw would become transition president -- while he himself would serve as vice president.
Traore, who ruled Mali for 22 years before being deposed in a 1991 coup, died at age 83 in the capital Bamako on September 15.
President Nana Akufo-Addo, who currently chairs Ecowas, said that a mediator would travel to Bamako in a week and the 15-nation bloc wanted the process finished.
Dicko, a Salafist preacher who earlier this year electrified protesters during anti-government demonstrations, told the state broadcaster late on Wednesday that Mali needed assistance and that it had nothing to gain by going behind the back of the international community.
The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States slapped sanctions on Mali after the putsch, including closing borders and a ban on trade and financial flows, and has called for elections within 12 months.
The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) held a summit on Friday to discuss Mali’s future and whether to lift sanctions on the country following last week’s ousting of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
The report, not published by ECOWAS but posted on several websites, also requires that civilians fill the posts of both president and prime minister.