Mali extends state of emergency by a year

 

Mali has extended by a year the state of emergency that was first introduced after a November 2015 attack on a Bamako hotel.
The decision, adopted Friday following a cabinet meeting, will notably extend security forces’ powers of arrest and detention, and comes as a delegation of ambassadors from members of the UN Security Council visits the region.
Their five-day visit to Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso comes in response to a plea by Malian foreign affairs minister Abdoulaye Diop earlier this month to the UN Security Council for the creation of a new international regional security force.
The mooted force would aid the “G5 Sahel” states of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – all badly hit by jihadist attacks and lacking military resources.
Mali’s situation has been particularly volatile since 2012 when jihadist groups captured the entire north of the country, but the latest move by the government comes amid a surge of attacks.
Large swathes of the country remain outside the control of Malian and foreign forces, despite a military intervention by France in 2013.
The state of emergency has been almost constantly in force since the November 20, 2015 attack on the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, Mali’s capital, which left 20 dead as well as the two attackers.
The government last extended the state of emergency for six months in April and it will expire at the end of this month.

 

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