Mali, Niger in meltdown, as both states wage multiple battles against Al-Qaeda

The Niger government has declared three days of national mourning after at least 29 soldiers were killed by suspected terrorists near the country’s border with Mali, whose army is also waging battles against Islamist militants on multiple fronts after the UN peacekeeping mission withdraws.
The “three borders” area between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso is regularly the scene of attacks by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda. A three-day national mourning period was declared in Niger on Tuesday (3 October) over the incident carried out by suspected jihadists that involved “improvised explosive devices and kamikaze vehicles by more than a hundred terrorists”, according to a government statement. The attack reportedly took place near the country’s border with Mali during military operations aimed at “neutralizing the threat posed” by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group in the area.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Mali, Islamist militants began a blockade of Timbuktu, a centuries-old centre of Islamic learning, by cutting road access in August and then shut off river and air routes in an offensive that has put the city once again on the frontline of a jihadist insurgency. The bombing began soon after, with rockets reportedly hitting a hospital, killing two children, and landed near a school where survivors of a passenger boat attack that killed more than 100 people were sheltering. Since the UN began winding down its peacekeeping mission in July, al-Qaida affiliated militants launched an offensive in central Mali, fighting has resumed between the army and Tuareg rebels from the north and, in the east, Islamic State-allied insurgents have continued to carry out attacks.