At least 31 soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Mali this week, an army officer said Wednesday, in one of the deadliest assaults on the military this year.

Dozens of assailants on motorbikes and pickup trucks on Monday stormed a military post southwest of the town of Ansongo, near the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, the army said on social media.

An initial statement said two soldiers had been killed and eight wounded, but late on Tuesday the army gave the higher casualty figures, specifying 11 dead and 14 injured with 11 still missing.

But on Wednesday, a Malian army officer, who declined to be named, said the death toll had further risen to 31.

He added that the bodies of 13 assailants were found after the clash.

It remains unclear how many soldiers are still missing.  

Mali was plunged into conflict in 2012 when local Tuareg radicals supported by jihadists revolted in the north.

France intervened to crush the rebellion, but the jihadists scattered and regrouped, taking their campaign into central Mali in 2015 and then into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

In Mali alone, thousands of civilians and troops have died and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.

The so-called three-border zone was the scene of a military offensive from early last year by the French Barkhane force and its regional allies, especially against the jihadist Islamic State in the Greater Sahara group (EIGS).

Militants frequently target Mali’s army — which is largely poorly equipped and underfunded — in attacks.

Source: AFP

Cameroon has hired consultancy Drake & Bart to design an institutional framework that would help wean the country off World Bank help in managing its mining cadastre.

Sky falls in for tycoon Mohamadou Dabo’s business airline

The Cameroonian authorities have brought the curtain down on the operations of the business travel specialist Global-S-Aviation. And its founder, the vastly wealthy businessman Mohamadou Dabo, is facing prosecution over the contract to upgrade Garoua airport.

Nigeria’s new military top brass after Buhari purge

President Buhari has put an entirely new team at the helm of the Nigerian military. Both public opinion and the military itself have welcomed the overhaul, while national security adviser Babagana Monguno has kept his job and could even consolidate his influence.

Candidate Sassou deploys his lobbyists and PR people in Washington and Paris

Hoping to be re-elected for a fourth term on 21 March, the Congolese leader Denis Sassou Nguesso recently retained the services of two PR firms in the French and American capitals to shore up his rather tattered international image.

Source: Africa Intelligence

Amadou Gon Coulibaly who was Ivory Coast’s prime minister and the governing party’s candidate for the October 2020 presidential election, died just days after returning from a two-month medical treatment in France.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the 61-year-old, who had heart surgery in 2012, became unwell during a weekly cabinet meeting and was taken to a hospital where he passed away.

Coulibaly’s death created a huge uncertainty over the election in Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa grower. Ouattara had designated Coulibaly as the RHDP candidate in March after announcing that he himself would not seek a third term.

Hamed Bakayoko, a close ally of Ouattara, was appointed as prime minister in July 2020 following the sudden death of his predecessor Amadou Gon Coulibaly, who had been handpicked by Ouattara to succeed him. He also held the defence ministry portfolio.

Prime Minister Bakayoko was flown to France on Feb. 18 for medical checks. The government said in a statement on Friday that Ouattara had met Bakayoko during a visit in France recently, and given the state of the prime minister’s health, it was recommended that he should stay longer in hospital.

Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara on Monday named his chief of staff Patrick Achi as interim prime minister in place of Hamed Bakayoko, who was absent due to health reasons.

Bakayoko died from covid at a hospital in Germany on Wednesday. The 56-year-old had seen his health deteriorate sharply in recent days.

He had terminal cancer and had been hospitalised at the American Hospital in Paris since the beginning of March and was transferred to a hospital in Freiburg, Germany on Saturday, to undergo an experimental treatment.

By some strange happenstance, interim Prime Minister Patrick Achi is also presently dying in a hospital in Abidjan. The close confidant of President Ouattara has not even received his first salary as Prime Minister.

CIR is keeping a watchful eye on the situation in the Ivory Coast and we will keep our readers posted as we get it!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Ivorian Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko died from covid at a hospital in Germany on Wednesday.

The 56-year-old had seen his health deteriorate sharply in recent days.

He had terminal cancer and had been hospitalised at the American Hospital in Paris since the beginning of March and was transferred to a hospital in Freiburg, Germany on Saturday, to undergo an experimental treatment.

“Our country is in mourning,” said President Alassane Ouattara on Twitter.

“I have the immense sorrow to announce to you the death of Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko this Wednesday, 10 March, in Germany following cancer”, Ouattara said, adding, he was “a great statesman, a model for our youth, a personality of great generosity and exemplary loyalty ”.

A transfer to Turkey, where there was talk of the Ivorian Prime Minister undergoing an emergency transplant, had also been considered for last Thursday. But doctors said he was no longer operable.

Bakayoko received treatment in France on February 18. In recent months, he had contracted coronavirus and malaria.

During his first stay in Paris at the end of January, he had performed a series of medical tests at the American Hospital without any precise diagnosis.

Alassane Ouattara went to his bedside visited the prime minister on March 3 in Paris. During a dinner with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, the Ivorian president expressed concern about the health of his prime minister.

Source: Africa New with additional editing by Camcord

Several opposition members in Tanzania have called on the authorities to release news of President John Magufuli, who has not appeared in public since February 27, prompting questions about his state of health.

Rumours have swirled on social media about if he has contracted coronavirus, especially in neighbouring Kenya under the hashtag # pray4magufuli.

Magufuli, 61, has been playing down the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, claiming Tanzania had freed itself from the Covid” through prayer.

He also rejected any lockdowns or measures such as mask-wearing.

But he later admitted what he called a “respiratory disease” was still circulating.

Many Tanzanian officials have died in recent weeks, often without the cause of their death being specified.

Among them, the first vice-president of the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Hamad, who died in mid-February. His party said he had contracted Covid-19.

John Magufuli was last seen in public on February 27, during the swearing-in of his new secretary-general.

He then did not participate in the ordinary virtual summit of heads of state of the East African Community (EAC) scheduled for the same day and has not been seen since at the two Sunday services, where he is usually filmed live by national television.

His main opponent Tundu Lissu said on Twitter: “It’s a sad comment on his stewardship of our country that it’s come to this: that he himself had get COVID-19 and be flown out to Kenya in order to prove that prayers, steam inhalations and other unproven herbal concoctions he’s championed are no protection against coronavirus!”

Source: AFP

A series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 600 others Sunday, authorities said.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said the explosion at 4 p.m. local time was the result of “negligent handling of dynamite” in the military barracks in the neighborhood of Mondong Nkuantoma in Bata. 

“The impact of the explosion caused damage in almost all the houses and buildings in Bata,” the president said in a statement, which was in Spanish.

The defense ministry released a statement late Sunday saying that a fire at a weapons depot in the barracks caused the explosion of high-caliber ammunition. It said the provisional toll was 20 dead and 600 injured, adding that the cause of the explosions will be fully investigated. 

The country’s president said the fire may have been caused by residents burning the fields surrounding the barracks. 

State television showed a huge plume of smoke rising above the explosion site as crowds fled, with many people crying out “we don’t know what happened, but it is all destroyed.” 

Images on local media seen by The Associated Press show people screaming and crying while running through the streets amid debris and smoke. Roofs of houses were ripped off and wounded people were being carried into a hospital.

Equatorial Guinea, an African country of 1.3 million people located south of Cameroon, was a colony of Spain until it gained its independence in 1968. Bata has roughly 175,000 inhabitants. 

Earlier, the Health Ministry had tweeted that 17 were killed and the president’s statement mentioned 15 dead.

The Health Ministry issued a call for blood donors and volunteer health workers to go to the Regional Hospital de Bata, one of three hospitals treating the wounded.

The ministry said its health workers were treating the injured at the site of the tragedy and in medical facilities, but feared people were still missing under the rubble. 

The blasts were a shock for the oil rich Central African nation. Foreign Minister Simeón Oyono Esono Angue met with foreign ambassadors and asked for aid.

“It is important for us to ask our brother countries for their assistance in this lamentable situation since we have a health emergency (from COVID-19) and the tragedy in Bata,” he said.

A doctor calling into TVGE, who went by his first name, Florentino, said the situation was a “moment of crisis” and that the hospitals were overcrowded. He said hospital facilities set up at a sports center for COVID-19 patients would be used to receive minor cases. 

Radio station, Radio Macuto, said on Twitter that people were being evacuated within 4 kilometers of the city because the fumes might be harmful.

Following the blast, the Spanish Embassy in Equatorial Guinea recommended on Twitter that “Spanish nationals stay in their homes.”

Source: VOA

Mahamadou Issoufou, who is stepping down as president of coup-prone Niger after two terms in office, on Monday won Africa’s top prize for leadership.

He was awarded the 2020 Mo Ibrahim Prize for facing “seemingly insurmountable challenges”, ranging from deep poverty to jihadism and desertification.

Despite these enduring problems, “Issoufou has led his people on a path of progress”, said a statement by award committee chairman Festus Mogae, who is also former president of Botswana.

“Today, the number of Nigeriens living below the poverty line has fallen to 40 percent, from 48 percent a decade ago,” the statement said.

“While challenges remain, Issoufou has kept his promises to the Nigerien people and paved the way for a better future.”

Issoufou, 68, is stepping down next month after 10 years in office.

His decision to quit after two terms has enabled Niger to have the first democratic transition between elected leaders since it became independent from France more than 60 years ago.

The handover has been contrasted with that of other countries in West Africa, where presidents have overseen constitutional changes enabling them to extend their time in office — often at the cost of violent protests.

Issoufou’s preferred successor and right-hand man, Mohamed Bazoum, won last month’s runoff, although the results were contested by the opposition and violence in the capital Niamey claimed two lives.

The Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership is based on principles of sound government, respect for term limits and democratic elections.

It has been handed out by a foundation, set up by British-Sudanese telecoms tycoon Mo Ibrahim, since 2007.

Issoufou is the sixth recipient — the prize has not been awarded in some years because of a lack of a suitable winner.

Past winners include former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and South African apartheid fighter and former president Nelson Mandela, both of whom were also Nobel Peace laureates.

Winners receive $5 million spread over 10 years, and then a life endowment of $200,000 for the rest of their lives.

In a statement on Twitter, Issoufou thanked the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, and said he considered the award an “encouragement to continue to think and act to promote democratic values and good governance, not only in Niger but also in Africa and throughout the world”.

Niger is the world’s poorest nation, according to the UN’s benchmark of human development, and is struggling with soaring population growth.

It is also fighting two jihadist insurgencies that have forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

Source: AFP

Senegalese police clashed with supporters of arrested opposition leader Ousmane Sonko on Thursday, leaving one person dead in the south of the country, a police official said.

It was the first death confirmed in clashes since Sonko was arrested on Wednesday for disturbing public order as protests broke out ahead of his court appearance on a rape charge.

Sonko, leader of the opposition Pastef party and former presidential candidate, is considered a key potential challenger for President Macky Sall in elections in three years.

One person was killed in clashes on Thursday in Bignona town, in the southern Casamance region, the police official said.

“We still don’t know the cause, it is under investigation,” said the official who asked not to be identified.

Four police were also injured in the fighting.

Sonko’s arrest has triggered the worst unrest seen in Dakar in years, in a West African country known for its stability.

Dozens of students were still holed up in Dakar’s Cheikh Anta Diop university on Thursday, where they threw concrete blocks at police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

Sonko was to be transferred Thursday evening to a Dakar courthouse where his case will be heard by a judge. But his lawyers said the hearing had been postponed to Friday.

“Ousmane Sonko is now the subject of a warrant. He will be taken to the investigating magistrate tomorrow, willingly or by force,” Abdoulaye Tall, one of his attorneys, told AFP.

Senegalese regulatory authorities on Thursday also suspended the signal of two local television channels, Sen TV and Walf TV, accusing them of broadcasting “in loop” images of the unrest after Sonko’s arrest.

Popular with youth

Hundreds of people had followed his motorcade on Wednesday, sounding horns and singing before clashes erupted and Sonko was arrested before reaching the court.

Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome said Sonko had been arrested over a ban on gatherings because of the coronavirus and violating a traffic plan put in place.

“Everyone has to comply. Others have done the same. I wonder why there would be an exception,” he told RFM radio.

Sonko also denies the rape charges filed against him last month by an employee at a salon where he received massages.

A 46-year-old devout Muslim, Sonko is frequently critical of Senegal’s ruling elite and is popular with young people.

He accuses Sall of conspiring to sideline him ahead of the 2024 elections.

Violence also broke out Wednesday in other areas including in Casamance, where Sonko’s father is from and where he has a strong following.

Sonko ran against the president in the 2019 vote, but finished third in a race that delivered the incumbent a second term.

Presidents in the former French colony are limited to two consecutive terms, but Sall launched a constitutional review in 2016, raising suspicions he intends to run again.

Source: AFP

Pro-government forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) on Wednesday seized a stronghold of former president Francois Bozize, who was accused in December of plotting a coup, Prime Minister Firmin Ngrebada said.

“I hail the capture of the town of Bossangoa by our forces and allies today,” he said on Facebook, referring to a key pro-Bozize town 280 kilometres (175 miles) north of the capital Bangui.

“Allies” is a term used by CAR’s government for Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan troops who are supporting the beleaguered authorities against rebel groups.

“Never again will bandits disturb people in this part of the country,” Ngrebada vowed.

A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “fighting is still ongoing” but “resistance has been broken, the enemy is fleeing.”

In mid-December, six rebel groups united to launch an offensive against President Faustin Archange Touadera, just over a week before presidential and legislative elections.

The government said the rebels had acted in concert with Bozize, who seized power in 2003 and was ousted a decade later—an act that sparked a civil war along sectarian lines.

Russia and Rwanda flew in military personnel to shore up the CAR’s poorly- equipped armed forces, which are also backed by a 12,000 UN force, MINUSCA.

The rebels attacked a string of towns in January and twice came close to the capital, but the government and its allies went on the counter-offensive.

A string of towns—Boda, Boali, Bossembele, Bossemptele, Yaloke and Beloko—have been recaptured and on February 16, Bangui’s road lifeline to neighbouring Cameroon was reopened.

The following day, the government said it had “completely liberated” Bambari, CAR’s fifth biggest town, located in the centre of the country, and captured “numerous prisoners.”

Shadow of Bozize

Bozize fled abroad after being toppled in 2013.

He returned in late 2019, stoking fears that the troubled nation would be plunged once more into a full-fledged conflict as elections loomed on the horizon.

Violence remains endemic in a country where two-thirds of the territory is controlled by militia groups.

Touadera won re-election in the first round of the polls, according to official figures, but the turnout was just 35 percent as many voters were unable to cast their ballot.

Bozize denies giving any support to the six rebel groups, who teamed up in December under the name of the Coalition of Patriots for Change, or CPC.

On January 4, the government launched an inquiry into him for “rebellion.”

Thousands of people have died in the CAR since 2013 and more than a quarter of the population of 4.9 million have fled their homes.

Of these, 675,000 are refugees in neighbouring countries.

Source: AFP

At least 60 people died when a passenger barge carrying more than 700 people became shipwrecked on the Congo river at night, Democratic Republic of Congo’s humanitarian affairs minister said on Monday.

Some 300 survivors had been found near the scene of the accident in Mai-Ndombe province in the west of the country, but another 240 remained unaccounted for, Steve Mbikayi wrote on Twitter.

Deadly boat accidents are common in Congo, which has few tarred roads across its vast, forested interior and where vessels are frequently loaded well beyond their capacity. For most people the Congo river and its tributaries are the only means of travelling long distances.

“We sympathize with the families of the victims and we demand sanctions against all those responsible for the transport sector,” Mbikayi said, without elaborating. No further details were immediately available.

(Source: Reuters)