The Latest Breaking News from Mali

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius is considering withdrawing Germany's troops from the U.N. stabilisation mission in Mali earlier than planned, since under current conditions they cannot fulfill their mandate, he told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung in comments published on Monday.

Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh talks to FRANCE 24 about the operation and the role of the IS group in Somalia. Also in this edition: the UN discusses the future of its peacekeeping mission in Mali. And finally, Ethiopia and Sudan look set to strengthen ties, despite the years-long…

Demonstrators in Burkina Faso's capital on Friday demanded France's ambassador leave the country and called for the closure of a French military base, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

A group of diplomats, former statesmen and U.N. officials began seeking political backing this week for a peacemaking framework to shape new standards for resolving conflicts that they say can avoid past mistakes such as in Mali and Afghanistan.

France's former president François Hollande granted an interview to FRANCE 24 and RFI on Wednesday, some 10 years after launching Operation Serval, which ousted armed rebels and Islamist militants from northern Mali. Hollande defended the record of French military operations in the Sahel region and expressed regret at the arrival…

In information revealed by RFI, 49 Ivorian soldiers who were arrested last year in Mali and accused of being mercenaries were part of the UN's Minusma mission and had been deployed at the request of the German contingent.

Western officials say violence against civilians in Mali has risen in the year since hundreds of Russian mercenaries have started working alongside the West African country's armed forces to stem a decade-long insurgency by Islamic extremists

The reinforcements in response to the latest attacks led to the killing of 31 rebels, the army said in a statement.

Fourteen Malian soldiers were killed and 11 wounded on Tuesday in two separate attacks in central Mali after their vehicles struck explosive devices, the army said on Wednesday.