Over 130 al-Shabaab militants have been killed in the last few operations around Somalia, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed, noting that the national army is determined to restore the rule of law and order in the Horn of Africa nation.

The operations, the Ministry of Defence said, were carried out in Galmudug, HirShabelle and Jubaland states within the last few days, just as the national army pushes the militants out of the strategic locations where they have been antagonising innocent people.

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Mali’s army has recaptured the strategic northern town of Kidal, a stronghold of Tuareg-dominated separatist groups that has long posed a major sovereignty issue for the ruling junta.

The capture of Kidal is a significant symbolic success for Mali’s military leaders, who seized power in 2020.

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Mali’s army moved closer Saturday to the strategically important northern town of Kidal that is held by Touareg separatist and rebel groups, army and political sources said.

Since seizing power in a coup in 2020 the African country’s military rulers have made a priority of re-establishing sovereignty over all regions and Kidal could become a key battleground.

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Mali’s military and Tuareg rebels said there had been deadly clashes on Tuesday in the northern town of Bourem, in a further sign of the unravelling of a 2015 peace deal.

The rebel alliance, called the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA), has been fighting the army since August, a conflict unleashed in part by the departure of a United Nations peacekeeping mission that for years had helped maintain a fragile calm.

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Relations with France, Niger’s former colonial power, degraded after Paris stood by ousted president Mohamed Bazoum following the July coup.

“France continues to deploy its forces in several ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) countries as part of preparations for an aggression against Niger, which it is planning in collaboration with this community organisation,” Niger’s regime spokesman Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane said on Saturday.

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