Around 20 people have been killed in an attack on a gold mining site in northern Burkina Faso, security sources said, the latest in a spate of violence blamed on a jihadist insurgency across the region.

The kingdom of Lesotho is joining the growing cohort of formerly pro-Polisario countries poised to revise their stance on the Western Sahara territorial dispute, buttressing the reigning suggestion of a pro-Rabat momentum in the latest developments.

A U.N. peacekeeper was killed and four others wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit an explosive device in northern Mali, the U.N. mission (MINUSMA) said.

The US if offering a $5 million bounty for the capture of Abu Walid, former Polisario soldier, now feared ISIS-affiliated ringleader in the Sahel.

Tens of thousands of Algerian protesters chanted slogans on Friday demanding the army quit politics, a purge of the ruling elite, an end to corruption, and the freeing of opposition leaders.

Insurgents conducted attacks against two military posts in the Mopti region of Mali near the border with Burkina Faso, killing at least two civilians and burning 22 vehicles, the army and local officials said.

Senegal’s president has pardoned the former mayor of the capital city Dakar, who was jailed for five years in 2018 on corruption charges.

Mauritania’s new President Mohamed Cheikh El Ghazouani has chosen Burkina Faso for his first international trip since ascending to power last month.

Pope Francis and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI called on Saturday for the protection of Jerusalem’s multi-religious character, saying the city’s sacred sites must be accessible to worshippers of all faiths.

Pope Francis, on his first official apostolic visit to Morocco, joined King Mohammed VI at an institute for the training of imams in Rabat