Blinken announces $150 mln in new aid for Sahel

Europe and Africa already had more than enough in their in-tray going into their first Brussels summit in nearly eight years. Now you can add coup contagion and the pullout of French-led anti-terror forces from Mali. The day began in Paris for key players in the Sahel. Will the crisis overshadow the EU-African Union summit?

President Mohamed Bazoum says Niger will welcome foreign special forces to secure the region. He said threats from the militant groups would likely rise as France pulls its troops out of Mali.

Mali's military junta has announced it will be exiting a multi-national military force tackling an insurgency in West Africa's Sahel region.

Whilst Russia represents an immediate threat, the long-term one China poses to the global order is more serious, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Beijing has accused the US of spreading "disinformation" after Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China could try to upend the international order.

In the Sahel, the number of informal mines is rising as gold mining areas escape state control. Mali is emerging as a gold-purchasing hub for Sahelian countries, while Dubai has become the main destination for artisanal gold production from the African continent. From the hidden smelters of Bamako to the artisanal mines of the Ivory Coast and a major gold market in Dubai, Caroline Dumay investigates the transforming global gold industry.

Relatives of the late journalist Shireen Abu Akleh pressed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for accountability. The US-Palestinian reporter was killed as she covered an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank.

On his second trip to Africa, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will persue South Africa to a more critical stance on the Ukraine-Russia war and address armed clashes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid a wreath at the Hector Pieterson memorial and met young African leaders in Johannesburg Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday (August 10) met with Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde in Kinshasa ahead of his trip to neighboring Rwanda.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday he discussed with Rwandan President Paul Kagame "credible reports" that Rwanda continued to support the M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A tentative truce appears to be holding, but Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's office said the situation was still "very tense." Over 200 soliders died in fighting this week.