20,000 Nigerian Girls Trafficked To Mali For Prostitution - NAPTIP

Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says it has received concrete intelligence that around 20,000 Nigerian girls have been forced into prostitution in Mali.

Gunmen Lay Siege to Mali Hotel; Kill Scores, Take Hostages

Bamako (AFP) - Several hostages, including a number of foreigners, were caught in a standoff in central Mali Friday after gunmen stormed a hotel during a shootout with soldiers in which at least five troops and two attackers were killed, the government said.

Mali Unrest: UN Surveillance Drones To Be Deployed

Security in the north, where armed groups still operated, has deteriorated
Surveillance drones are to be used by the United Nations in Mali's volatile and vast northern desert region.

UN peacekeeping head Herve Ladsous told the UN Security Council they would help protect civilians and troops.

A 8,000-strong UN force is deployed to help stabilise the region after French and African troops ousted Islamist militants from the main towns in 2013.

Africa's Sahel Region 'Threatened By Islamist Violence'

The growth of Islamist violence in the Sahel is threatening the stability of the entire region that runs south of Africa's Sahara Desert, a UN envoy has told the Security Council.

Hiroute Guebre Sellassie, the new UN envoy for the Sahel, said Nigeria, Libya and Mali were worst affected.

But overall "terrorist acts" in the Sahel and the Maghreb had increased by 60% in 2013, he said.