BAMAKO: Islamic State-affiliated militants have released four Moroccan truck drivers kidnapped in January, Mali said late on Monday, according to state media, highlighting growing intelligence cooperation between the two countries.
The men and their three trucks disappeared in January while crossing without an escort from Dori in Burkina Faso to Tera in Niger, an area known for jihadist threats, a diplomatic source said at the time.
They were shown alongside Mali junta leader Assimi Goita in footage broadcast on Monday night by state media, which reported that they had been freed on Sunday.
Junta-led Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali are battling militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State that have been destabilising West Africa’s Sahel region for more than a decade.
All three countries have halted defense cooperation with France and other Western forces and turned toward Russia for military support. And last year they announced their withdrawal from the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), raising the risk of diplomatic isolation.
Morocco has meanwhile drawn closer to the three landlocked countries.
In April, the foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali endorsed an initiative offering them access to global trade through Morocco’s Atlantic ports. Morocco also mediated to secure the release in December of four French nationals who had been held in Burkina Faso for a year.
The release on Sunday of the four truck drivers came as a result of cooperation between the security and intelligence services of Mali and Morocco, Malian state media reported.
Islamist militants free Moroccan truck drivers held since January, Mali says
https://arab.news/g7bfv
Islamist militants free Moroccan truck drivers held since January, Mali says
- The men and their three trucks disappeared in January while crossing without an escort from Dori in Burkina Faso to Tera in Niger
Hamas says will give up arms to a Palestinian authority ‘if occupation ends’
- “We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza,” Hayya says
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Hamas said Saturday it was ready to hand over its weapons in the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian authority governing the territory on the condition that the Israeli army’s occupation ends.
“Our weapons are linked to the existence of the occupation and the aggression,” Hamas chief negotiator and its Gaza chief Khalil Al-Hayya said in a statement, adding: “If the occupation ends, these weapons will be placed under the authority of the state.” Asked by AFP, Hayya’s bureau said he was referring to a sovereign and independent Palestnian state.
“We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza,” Hayya added, signalling his group’s rejection of the deployment of an international force in the Strip whose mission would be to disarm it.
