Epstein Secrets

. , Islamists have managed to gain ground, defeating Malian soldiers and opening a southern front just two hundred and fifty miles from the capital, Bamako, even with the French offensive. The French are saying that the Islamists are using child solders, which will pose a tactical and ethical quandary

nstitution suspended. On 6 April 2012, rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) declared the secession of a new state, Azawad, from Mali. Shortly after, the MNLA were sidelined by Islamist groups associated with Al-Qaeda[citation needed], and dropped their demands for seces

iew Mali, a former French colony, is a West African nation that had often been cited as a democratic model. But in March 2012, mutinous soldiers in Bamako, the capital, rose up in a coup, overthrowing the elected government of President Amadou Toumani Tour& The soldiers were angry over the government'

In the days after the military coup, the Tuareg rebels seized much of the desert expanse in northern Mali, declaring it an independent state called Azawad. But the Tr rai •ebels — called the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, known as the — were then pushed into the background by the fie

B B -F C NEWS Mali ALGERIA MAURITANIA SENEGAL Atlantic Ocean MALI 0 Bamako , GUINEA BURKINA FASO NIGER The landlocked West African country of Mali - one of the poorest in the world - experienced rapid economic growth

closer to the government-held south-west. In November they say they and al-Qaeda fighters capture Menaka, a town on the border with Niger, from the Azawad Tuareg rebels. 2012 November - The West African regional grouping Ecowas agrees to launch a coordinated military expedition to recapture the north