{"id":14938,"date":"2025-11-10T11:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T09:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/au-calls-for-urgent-action-in-insurgency-hit-mali\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:20","slug":"au-calls-for-urgent-action-in-insurgency-hit-mali","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/au-calls-for-urgent-action-in-insurgency-hit-mali\/","title":{"rendered":"AU calls for urgent action in insurgency hit Mali"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>African Union (AU) has called for an urgent international response, including intelligence-sharing, to address worsening security conditions in Mali, where insurgents are imposing a fuel blockade and kidnapping foreigners.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>An Al Qaeda-linked jihadist group active in West Africa&#8217;s Sahel region has blocked fuel imports since September, attacking convoys of tankers and creating a shortage that forced schools and businesses to shut.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The latest show of force by the group, Jama&#8217;at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), has raised concern that it might eventually try to impose its rule over the landlocked country.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Western countries including the United States, France, Britain and Italy are urging their citizens to leave.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In a statement on Sunday, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, chairperson of the African Union Commission, expressed &#8220;deep concern over the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Mali, where terrorist groups have imposed blockades, disrupted access to essential supplies, and severely worsened humanitarian conditions for civilian populations&#8221;.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He said there should be &#8220;enhanced cooperation, intelligence-sharing and sustained support&#8221; for countries in the Sahel affected by violent extremism.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He also called for the immediate release of three Egyptian nationals he said were recently kidnapped.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>JNIM has targeted foreign nationals for kidnapping to finance its operations in West Africa.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Reuters reported in October that a deal was reached to free two citizens of the United Arab Emirates in exchange for a ransom payment of roughly $50 million.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Schools re-opened in the capital Bamako on Monday, a\u00a0Reuters\u00a0witness said, after being suspended for two weeks because of the fuel shortage.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14939,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-14938","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Calls to address worsening security conditions in Mali","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19384,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14938\/revisions\/19384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}