The Latest Breaking News from Mali

As France and its European allies prepare to leave Mali, Paris plans to increase its military cooperation with Niger in the fight against Islamist insurgents in the Sahel. But it’s a marriage of convenience as coups and rising anti-French sentiments in the region have left Paris with little choice.

Mali's ruling military junta on Friday asked France to withdraw troops from its territory "without delay", calling into question Paris' plan for a four- to six-month departure and highlighting the breakdown in relations between the two countries.

Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum says French and European special forces can cross into its territory from neighbouring Mali to combat jihadists and boost security near the border with the West African state.

Despite Macron’s refusal to admit failure, France’s military intervention in Mali has been controversial.

In a interview with FRANCE 24 at the EU-African Union summit in Brussels, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo said the French-led troop withdrawal from Mali required "new arrangements" in the regional fight against terrorism. Akufo-Addo, who is also the current chairman of West African bloc ECOWAS, demanded the departure of "foreign…

Comments by President Mohamed Bazoum come a day after France and European allies announce withdrawal from Mali.

Niger has accepted that French and European special forces will be deployed into its territory from neighbouring Mali, in order to secure the border area with the West African state, Niger's president said on Twitter on Friday.

We explain why France and its European allies have decided to withdraw troops from Mali after almost a decade. France sent soldiers to its former colony in 2013 to beat back advancing Islamist extremists, but its initial battlefield success was followed by a grinding insurgency and rising hostility from Malians.…

Europe and Africa already had more than enough in their in-tray going into their first Brussels summit in nearly eight years. Now you can add coup contagion and the pullout of French-led anti-terror forces from Mali. The day began in Paris for key players in the Sahel. Will the crisis…

France’s announcement that it will withdraw its troops from Mali has been anticipated by many in this West African nation where Malians have protested the presence of soldiers from the former colonial power

France and military allies are leaving Mali after using it for almost a decade as a base for fighting Islamist insurgents who continue to wreak havoc and control swathes of territory around West Africa.