Terror groups are increasingly using new tactics, notably armed suicide or kamikaze drones, according to a government statement released following several attacks on cities in western Mali on 1 July.
The use of commercially available small civilian drones for strikes by terrorist and armed rebel groups is not limited to Mali, and has become prevalent throughout the Central Sahel. Separatist and terror groups in the region likely draw inspiration from the successful use of drones by regular armies in other conflict zones, such as Libya and the Middle East.
Read more…
Source: Institute for Security Studies News
Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- UN demining body explodes landmines in South Sudan
January 27, 2022
After decades of civil war, landmines and unexploded bombs still contaminate large tracts of South Sudan’s landscape, threatening the lives and livelihoods of its residents. In the village of Gondokoro, a few kilometres from the capital Juba, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) removes explosive remnants of war. Read more… Source: Euronews
- Burkina Faso: Four French soldiers injured in bomb blast in Yatenga Province
January 19, 2022
Four French soldiers were wounded in an improvised explosive device blast in northern Burkina Faso, France’s military told AFP Tuesday evening. “(Their) off-road vehicle activated an IED as it left Ouahigouya airport,” the army said in a statement, adding the unit was part of the Barkhane operation, Paris’ deployment in the Sahel against a jihadist insurgency. Four ...
- South Sudan: Floods hampering UNMAS demining work in Jonglei State’s Pigi County
January 17, 2022
It may look idyllic, but the presence of a minefield is a threat to these villagers in Pigi County. Floods have so far made clearance of the area impossible. Residents in Pigi County, on the Jonglei State side of the river border with Upper Nile State, need to tread carefully. Floods mean that the recommendation by ...
- Sahel Conflict Set to Worsen in 2022 – Analysts
December 31, 2021
Islamist militant attacks increased this past year in the Sahel region, leading to political instability that saw a coup in Mali, an attempted coup in Niger, and calls for Burkina Faso’s president to resign. Burkina Faso experienced the deadliest terrorist attacks since the conflict began, but analysts say the worst could be yet to come. 2021 ...
- Mali: Four Soldiers Killed in Attack in Nara Region
December 30, 2021
Four Malian soldiers were killed and around a dozen others were wounded when they were attacked in the west of the county, the army said Thursday. Mali’s Armed Forces said the attack occurred late Tuesday in a region of the country where jihadists have attacked soldiers in the past. An army “unit in the Nara region was ...
- Terrorists’ IED Attacks Make the UN Mission in Mali Even Deadlier in 2021
December 23, 2021
The world’s deadliest peacekeeping mission has recorded a twofold increase in fatalities among its troops from improvised explosive devices this year, reinforcing what analysts say: more sophisticated attacks are being carried out by jihadists in Mali and elsewhere in the Sahel region of West Africa. Half of the 28 uniformed peacekeepers deaths recorded this year by ...
- French army claims to have killed suspect in 2020 murders of aid workers in Niger
December 22, 2021
The French army says that it has killed one of the suspects in last year’s murder of eight people including six young French aid workers in the Koure National Park in Niger, The Islamic State armed group had claimed the killings last August of the six aid workers aged between 25 and 31 and their two ...
- Europe deploys Takuba task force in Mali as France draws down troops
December 16, 2021
France’s military camps in Mali are going quiet as Paris winds down its security presence in the restive West African country, but there is one notable exception. What was once a quaint army base in France’s Barkhane anti-jihadist operation is rapidly turning into a cornerstone of Takuba, the European force that is to pick up the ...
- Why France faces so much anger in West Africa
December 5, 2021
It all started so positively. Where have things gone wrong? Why does France now appear so unpopular in Africa? French President Emmanuel Macron has increased aid to the continent, begun the return of cultural artefacts stolen during the colonial wars and reached out beyond the usual inter-government ties to engage younger generations and civil society. He ...
- Mali: Growing Trend of Violence Against UN Peacekeepers
October 25, 2021
On 2 October 2021, a United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) peacekeeper died and four others were seriously injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Tessalit, Kidal region. Strongly condemning the incident, Mr El-Ghassim Wane, the Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of MINUSMA, remarked that, “this incident ...
- Mali: Several soldiers killed in IED attack in Mopti region
October 6, 2021
At least nine soldiers have been killed and 11 more wounded in an attack in central Mali, the army said, but local officials said the death toll was even higher. The attack on Wednesday occurred near the village of Bodio in the Mopti region, the epicentre of violence in Mali by fighters linked to al-Qaeda and ...
- French troops kill leader of Islamic State group in Sahel
September 16, 2021
The head of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, who was wanted for deadly attacks on US soldiers and foreign aid workers, has been killed in an operation by French troops. Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi was “neutralised by French forces”, President Emmanuel Macron tweeted early Thursday. “This is another major success in our fight against terrorist groups in the ...
- Burkina Faso: Six killed in mining convoy attack in Est Region
September 13, 2021
Unidentified armed men killed six gendarmes and wounded seven others in an attack on a convoy of vehicles returning from a gold mine owned by Endeavor Mining in the east of the country, authorities said on Monday. The convoy of empty fuel trucks the gendarmes were protecting was ambushed at around 13:30 GMT on Sunday on ...
- Selected Police personnel in Africa trained in explosives combat
August 28, 2021
Selected Police personnel from 11 African countries have undergone explosive recognition and awareness training to combat explosive-related threats by terrorists and extremists. The two-week training dubbed: “Explosives Hazards Awareness Training (EHAT) of Trainers,” drew participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cameron, Egypt, Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Gambia. Held at the Ghana ...
- Mali: 15 soldiers killed, several wounded in ambush in Mopti province
August 20, 2021
Fifteen Malian soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded when a booby trapped vehicle exploded Thursday in Mali’s central Mopti region, the Defense Ministry said. “The convoy of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) leaving Douentza for Boni was the target of a complex attack” as a “victim of an ambush after the explosion of an abandoned ...