A United Nations plane careened off the runway while touching down in the northern Malian city of Gao on Monday, the international organisation said, injuring 11 people. According to Abdoulaye Maiga, a witness to the accident who works for an airport-security company, the plane had to make an emergency landing, at which point it “left the runway”. UN peacekeepers deployed to Mali in July 2013, after jihadists seized much of the north of the country the previous year. The MINUSMA now has 13,000 troops in Mali, while France has 5,100 soldiers as part of Operation Barkhane, its anti-jihad force in the Sahel. Despite the presence of thousands of foreign troops, the conflict has engulfed the centre of Mali and spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger to the west.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 03, 2020 18:33 UTC