ISIS militants have almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in less than a year amid stalled peace efforts, United Nations experts have said.
“In less than a year, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has almost doubled its areas of control in Mali,” the expert panel said in a report shared by the Associated Press, referencing the group's control of rural areas in eastern Menaka and large parts of the Ansongo area in northern Gao.
ISIS attacks in the area have also eroded trust in signatories of a 2015 peace agreement, it added, with actors appearing "to be weak and unreliable security providers” for communities targeted by the extremists.
The terror group and Al Qaeda-affiliated rivals have taken advantage of the delay in implementing the agreement to stage attacks and are looking to re-establish an Islamist state in the north of the country, as happened in 2012, the UN experts said.
The Al Qaeda affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) is now positioning itself as the sole actor capable of protecting populations against Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, the experts said in the report circulated on Friday.
Mali, which has witnessed several coups in recent years, has supported the military junta which took power last month in neighbouring Niger.
The instability there has threatened counterterror efforts across Africa's Sahel region, where experts have warned of a huge increase in ISIS and militant activity.
France and the US, which both have troops in Niger, suspended counterterror operations following the coup, while Mali's leaders have warned Ecowas, the bloc of West African states, against a military intervention there.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea have told Ecowas that sending troops into Niger would also be seen as a declaration of war against them.
With ISIS' presence waning in the Middle East, the terror group is now on the rise in Africa, experts have previously told The National.
While it has to battle rivals in Mali, it has managed to gain a strong foothold in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, among others.
In June, Mali's junta ordered the UN peacekeeping force and its 15,000 international troops to leave after a decade of working on stemming the extremist insurgency.
The Security Council terminated the mission’s mandate on June 30.
The peacekeeping force, Minusma, also played a crucial role in facilitating peace talks and monitoring violations of the peace agreement, the experts' report said.
In June, a UN peacekeeper was killed and nine others wounded in an attack on their convoy.
More than 300 Minusma personnel were killed during the UN mandate in the country, making it the world's deadliest peacekeeping mission.
The panel said the armed groups that signed the 2015 agreement expressed concern that the peace deal could fall apart without UN mediation, “thereby exposing the northern regions to the risk of another uprising".
It also accused Russia's Wagner Group of being involved in "persistent" sexual violence in central and eastern parts of the country.
“The panel believes that violence against women, and other forms of grave abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law are being used, specifically by the foreign security partners, to spread terror among populations,” the report said.
Last month, the US sanctioned Malian officials, including the Minister of Defence, for alleged links to the Wagner Group.
Washington has also accused the paramilitary group of helping engineer the Minusma departure from Mali.
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Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
Know before you go
- Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
- If you’re driving, make sure your insurance covers Oman.
- By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
- Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
- Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.
Usain Bolt's World Championships record
2007 Osaka
200m Silver
4x100m relay Silver
2009 Berlin
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2011 Daegu
100m Disqualified in final for false start
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2013 Moscow
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
2015 Beijing
100m Gold
200m Gold
4x100m relay Gold
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
BMW M5 specs
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Brief scores:
Newcastle United 1
Perez 23'
Wolverhampton Rovers 2
Jota 17', Doherty 90' 4
Red cards: Yedlin 57'
Man of the Match: Diogo Jota (Wolves)
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'Panga'
Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta
Rating: 3.5/5
