Mali
Super Eagles out to end Algeria’s 18-match unbeaten run
The Super Eagles will go into October 9 friendly against Algeria with the sole aim of ending the Desert Foxes’ 18 match -unbeaten streak. The North Africans last defeat came almost two years ago, a 1-0 loss to the Squirrels of Benin in a 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. Since then, the Desert Foxes have won 13 and drawn 5 matches. Djamel Belmadi’s side recorded wins against top sides like Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia, Mali and Colombia during the period. The game will be first time the Super Eagles and Algeria will be meeting in a friendly. It will be a repeat of the 2019 AFCON semi-final which Algeria won 2-1 courtesy of Riyad Mahrez late free kick. Both countries have faced each other 21 times in official match at senior level. Get more stories like this on Twitter You Deserve to Make ...
Aston Villa interested in signing Liverpool youngster
Aston Villa are interested in signing the Liverpool youngster Rhian Brewster this summer. The 20-year-old striker was on loan at Swansea City last season and he managed to score 11 goals for them. Brewster needs to leave the club in order to play regular first-team football and it will be interesting to see if the likes of Villa can agree on a fee with Liverpool in the coming weeks. According to Independent, Sheffield United are keen on signing the young striker as well and they have already spoken to the Reds regarding a move. Liverpool value the young striker at £25 million and they are hoping to insert a buy-back clause in the contract if Brewster is sold this summer. Such a deal would be ideal for Liverpool as it would allow the player to develop with the regular first-team football el...
ECOWAS likely to decide on lifting Mali sanctions Friday
The West African bloc ECOWAS will likely decide on Friday whether to lift potentially crippling sanctions imposed on Mali after last month’s coup, its mediator said. The mediator, Nigerian former president Goodluck Jonathan, called the 15-nation bloc’s sanctions “unfortunate” during a visit to Mali’s capital Bamako on Wednesday. West African leaders have heaped pressure on the ruling military junta to return power to civilians since the coup toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18. ECOWAS has used the sanctions, which include closing borders and restricting trade, as leverage in negotiations with the junta. Sticking points in those negotiations have included whether civilians or soldiers will run a transition government until fresh elections. The junta asked for the sanctions...
Plateau United coach seeks financial support to achieve Champions League Semi final target
Plateau United coach Abdu Maikaba has stated that they need the required support to meet the target of semi-finals of the 2020/2021 CAF Champions League. The former Akwa United coach admitted the 2017 NPFL champions will require even more backing and hard work to realize their last-four ambition in the competition – a feat which was last achieved by a Nigerian club – Sunshine Stars in 2012. “They (Plateau State Government) gave us enough support, but actually, we have to work very hard to achieve that target,” he said. “Getting to the semi-finals (of the CAF Champions League) is not an easy task, and we have to work very, very hard. We have to be given all the necessary support to get there. “In terms of personnel, like the replacement of players, I have to get the support to make the repl...
Presidential elections in Ghana, others top agenda at ECOWAS meeting
The 44th Ordinary Meeting of the Mediation and Security Council of the Economic Community of West African States has called attention to the ongoing insurgency in Nigeria, Gambia and Guinea Bissau as well as the political crisis in Mali. The Council at its meeting in Niamey, Niger, on Friday, also focused on forthcoming presidential elections in Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Niger. The meeting was presided over by the Nigerien Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Mediation and Security Council, Kalla Ankourao. Ankourao recalled the challenges COVID-19 has brought upon the region coupled with the breakdown in democratic governance in Mali. He urged the ECOWAS body to take the necessary steps for the preparation and smooth conduct of the upcoming presidential electi...
Mali: Military opens talks on transition to civilian rule
Mali’s military junta will hold meetings on Saturday to discuss its promised transition to civilian rule after mounting pressure from neighbours to yield power in the weeks since it overthrew the nation’s leader. The West African country has long been plagued by chronic instability, a simmering jihadist revolt, ethnic violence and endemic corruption, prompting a clique of rebel colonels to detain elderly President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last month. They pledged to step down after an undefined transition period, but the putsch has prompted Mali’s neighbours and former colonial ruler France to demand a swift transfer of power, with fears the crisis could impact neighbouring states. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc has imposed sanctions and closed...
French anti-jihadist force kills civilian in Mali
French anti-jihadist troops in Mali killed a civilian Tuesday and injured two others after a bus refused to slow down in a volatile area despite their orders, the French army command said. The incident occurred about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the city of Gao in Mali’s troubled north. The French soldiers fired warning shots in the ground but two bullets bounced off and hit the windscreen, wounding three people, including one fatally, the French army command said. “The seriously wounded person was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital of the (French) Barkhane force in Gao, but died of his injuries,” it said. “All steps have been taken to ascertain the exact sequence of events,” it said, expressing its “sincere condolences to the family of the deceased.” Mali is now under the control of...
Mali protest movement proposes two-year transition to civilian rule
The protest coalition that campaigned against former Mali president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has proposed that the military junta that ousted him organise a transition to civilian rule within 24 months, one of its leaders said Sunday. Military rulers received representatives of the June 5 Movement at the Kati barracks near Bamako late Saturday, after announcing they would postpone a meeting with civic groups, political organisations and former rebels on the transfer of power due to “organisational reasons”. The protest movement has demanded that the military junta give it a role in the transition, in keeping with its role in spearheading Keita’s ouster. It has proposed “a transition of 18 to 24 months” with civilians heading a transitional presidency, government and assembly, one of the move...
Mali junta postpones transfer of powers meeting as cracks emerge
Mali’s military junta on Saturday postponed the first meeting on the transfer of power after rising tensions with the group that sparked the August 18 coup. The junta had invited civic groups, political organisations and former rebels to consultations on Saturday, but said in a statement that the meeting was postponed at the last minute to a later date due to “organisational reasons”. A protest coalition that had campaigned against former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the June 5 Movement, was not invited to the meeting and accused the new military rulers of trying to hijack the coup. The group has demanded that the military junta give it a role in the transition to civilian rule, in keeping with its role in spearheading Keita’s ouster. The military has promised to do so, though without...
West African delegation ‘very hopeful’ after meeting Mali junta
A West African delegation visiting Mali to push for a speedy return to civilian rule following a coup said it was “very hopeful” on Saturday after meeting with the country’s military junta and the president it ousted. The head of the delegation from the regional Ecowas bloc, former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, said that detained Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was doing relatively well. “We saw him, he’s very fine,” said Jonathan, who had earlier met for half an hour with the soldiers who seized power on Tuesday, including new strongman Colonel Assimi Goita. Jonathan told AFP that negotiations were going well and he was “very hopeful”. Rebel soldiers seized Keita and other leaders after a mutiny on Tuesday, dealing another deep blow to a country already struggling with a b...
Mali junta open talks with opposition leaders after coup
Mali’s junta headed by Army colonel Assimi Goita which seized power in a coup on Tuesday has begun to meet with senior opposition politicians in the country. This comes amid global condemnation of the coup and mounting calls for the release of President Ibrahim Booubakar Keita and his prime minister Boubou Cisse. There were few signs that political opposition leaders were aware of the coup plot in advance but now they stand to benefit from a transitional government promised to be put in place by the military junta “I think the hardest part starts now. It’s a question of bringing everyone together, as I’ve always said, there are no winners and losers, we’re all Malians, so for us, even those who were with IBK (ed: Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta), if they don’t have blood on their hands, if they’re ...
ECOWAS calls for restoration of ousted Malian president, sanctions against putschists
West African leaders under the regional bloc ECOWAS have said they would dispatch envoys to Mali to help secure “the return of constitutional order”. In a video conference on Thursday, they called for the ousted Malian president to be restored to office. “We have decided to immediately send a high-level delegation in order to ensure the immediate return of constitutional order,” the regional bloc ECOWAS said at the end of a video summit. “We call for the restoration of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita as president,” it said in a closing statement read by the president of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, who chairs the group. “Mali is in a critical situation, with serious risks that a collapse of the state and institutions leads to reversals in the fight against terrorism and organised crime, wit...
