North Africa and the Sahel

The foreign ministers of Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Chad failed to agree on the terms for a joint ministerial summit with the European Union and have instead chosen to hold bilateral talks with EU High Representative Josep Borrel. The cancellation followed a series of coups in Mali and Burkina Faso, which has put into question the main European military tool in the Sahel region, the Takuba force. Task Force Takuba was created with much fanfare, and after a lot of French insistence, in March 2020 to help Mali and its neighbours in the West African Sahel fight militants linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, who have taken over large parts of their territory. 

The president of Burkina Faso – Roch Kaboré - has been overthrown by a group of soldiers in the third military coup in West Africa in eight months. In a televised broadcast on Monday coup leaders announced the closure of land and air borders from midnight, dissolved the government and the National Assembly and "suspended" the Constitution. A curfew was also decreed, from 9 pm to 5 am, throughout the country, "until further notice".

President Roch Kaboré has been arrested and is being held by soldiers who initiated a coup d'état in Burkina Faso. Media reports say that the military, frustrated by the inability of the government to address the attacks by radical Islamic militants, initiated the coup. The soldiers say president Kaboré is not supporting the army sufficiently thus the need for a military regime. Sources close to the military say the president is being held in a safe place. 

After ending the year with chaos and uncertainty, Libya political factions disagreed over elections rules leading to the postponement of elections originally scheduled for 24 December 2021. It is now expected that elections be pushed towards a June 2022 deadline with no official date set yet. 

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