Fourty-eight hours after its announcement, fusion’s project between tuareg rebels and islamist group Ansar Dine in northern Mali has been blocked yesterday evening because of basic disagreements, including application of islamic law.
Tuesday, 29 May, 2012
Mali: No fusion between tuareg of National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar Dine, group linked to al-Qaeda
Monday, 28 May, 2012
Yemen: Military rejects Ansar al-Sharia cease-fire offer
Confrontations continue between the Yemeni military — backed by people’s committees, groups of civilian fighters who fight alongside the army — and Ansar al-Sharia in Zinjibar, after a week of purging several areas in Abyan.
A military source near Zinjibar told the Yemen Times on Sunday that clashes are ongoing, pointing out that the military had gained control of several areas in Abyan, including a large portion of Jaar, the main stronghold of Ansar al-Sharia.
Sunday, 27 May, 2012
Sudan: Sudan ready to withdraw its troops from Abyei region
Sudan says it is ready to pull its soldiers out of the contested Abyei region, former US president Jimmy Carter said after meeting Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir on Sunday.
“He has notified the negotiators he’s ready to withdraw troops from Abyei, which we believe is a major step forward,” Carter told reporters after he and Algeria’s former foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi held talks with the Sudanese president.
The two met Bashir as members of The Elders, a group of global leaders chaired by Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu, ahead of a planned resumption of talks between Sudan and South Sudan on Tuesday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Mali: National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA) and Ansar Dine declared the Islamic Republic of Azawad
The two rebel groups that seized control of the northern half of Mali announced Saturday that they have agreed to fuse their movements and work together to create an independent Islamic state on the territory they occupy, a signatory to the agreement said.
Alghabass Ag Intalla, one of the leaders of Ansar Dine, which is fighting to create an Islamic state, confirmed that his movement was joining with the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, a secular rebel group led by Tuareg separatists. They signed the agreement in the northern town of Gao on Saturday evening, and celebratory gunfire rang out in both Gao and Timbuktu, another town under their control, as fighters heard the news.
Friday, 25 May, 2012
Syria: At least 50 killed including 13 children in clashes in Houla town
At least 50 people, including 13 children, have been killed after Syrian forces attacked the town of Houla in Homs province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists said.
Activists said clashes erupted in the town when Syrian forces opened fire on a protest against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad and killed one protester.
Thursday, 24 May, 2012
South Sudan: South Sudan army says was attacked by Popular Defence Forces (PDF) rebels and Sudan army in border areas
South Sudan said Wednesday that militia groups aligned to the government of neighbouring Sudan, collaboratively attempted to attack the border states of Western and Northern Bahr el Ghazal over the last two days, targeting largely civilian settlements and forcing hundreds of families to flee their ancestral homes and head for urban towns.
Eyewitnesses and state officials from Aweil East County, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, said, in series of interviews with Sudan Tribune, that the attack was carried out by militia groups acting in collaboration with the Khartoum-sponsored Popular Defence Forces (PDF) and the Sudan Armed Forces.
Tuesday, 22 May, 2012
Colombia: Defense Minister says Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are hiding in Venezuela
The FARC rebel front accused of killing 12 Colombian soldiers Monday is stationed in Venezuela and moves easily between the two countries, Colombia’s minister of defense said Tuesday.
The guerrilla unit probably has been using Venezuela as “its home base for quite a while,” Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said in an interview with Caracol Radio.
The FARC, Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, allegedly ambushed the army’s First Brigade while it patrolled an area in the northern department of Guajira near the Venezuelan border. Twelve uniformed soldiers died in the attack and at least four more were wounded.