BAMAKO (Reuters) – Suicide attacks on a French-run mine and a military base in northern Niger have shown how an Islamist threat is spreading across the weak nations of the Sahara, meaning France may be tied down there for years to come.

Regional rivalries are aggravating the problem for Paris and its Western allies, with a lack of cooperation between Saharan countries helping militants to melt away when they come under pressure and regroup in quieter parts of the vast desert.

BAMAKO, May 31 (Reuters) – Suicide attacks on a French-run
mine and a military base in northern Niger have shown how an
Islamist threat is spreading across the weak nations of the
Sahara, meaning France may be tied down there for years to come.

Regional rivalries are aggravating the problem for Paris and
its Western allies, with a lack of cooperation between Saharan
countries helping militants to melt away when they come under
pressure and regroup in quieter parts of the vast desert.

KOULIKORO, Mali (Reuters) – Under a blazing sun and the critical gaze of British and Irish instructors, a line of 11 Malian soldiers lie prone in the dust firing AK-47 rounds at targets, one-by-one.

“One out of 10 – not very good,” Captain Ibrahim Soumassa, commander of the Malian unit, tells one of the men. “We’re at 25 meters. When we’re at 100, it’ll be difficult.”

BAMAKO (Reuters) – After winning adulation across Mali for a five month military offensive that crushed al Qaeda fighters, France is now frustrating some of its allies by pushing for a political settlement with a separate group of Tuareg rebels.

A standoff over how to restore Malian government authority to Kidal, the last town in the desert north yet to be brought under central control, is sowing resentment with Paris and could delay planned elections to restore democracy after a coup.

BAMAKO (Reuters) – Fighting has broken out in northern Mali between Tuareg separatists and local Arab-led gunmen, only days after the African country won a $4.2 billion aid pledge to help it recover from a conflict with Islamists affiliated to al Qaeda.

Rebel and military sources both confirmed the clashes, although they differed over precisely which groups were involved.

DAKAR, April 23 (Reuters) – Before Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad started a visit to Niger last week, there was talk
that the poor West African state might add Iran to its list of
buyers for the uranium mined in its remote desert north.

Such a deal would have alarmed world powers seeking to have
Iran curb its shadowy nuclear programme. But the outcome of
Ahmadinejad’s trip was far less spectacular: an agreement on
visas for diplomats and another on health cooperation.

DAKAR (Reuters) – U.S. anti-drugs agents who snared Guinea-Bissau’s former Navy chief in a high-seas sting last week were also targeting the head of the West African state’s army, sources familiar with the operation told Reuters.

Guinea-Bissau General Antonio Indjai – widely seen as the coup-prone nation’s most powerful man – declined to meet undercover agents in international waters where he had been told he could seal a lucrative deal to smuggle cocaine and supply weapons to Colombian rebels, sources said.

DAKAR (Reuters) – U.S. anti-drugs agents who snared Guinea-Bissau’s former Navy chief in a high-seas sting last week were also targeting the head of the West African state’s army, sources familiar with the operation told Reuters.

Guinea-Bissau General Antonio Indjai – widely seen as the coup-prone nation’s most powerful man – declined to meet undercover agents in international waters where he had been told he could seal a lucrative deal to smuggle cocaine and supply weapons to Colombian rebels, sources said.

DAKAR (Reuters) – Chad will withdraw its troops from Mali where they risk being bogged down in guerrilla war after helping to drive Islamists from northern towns, President Idriss Deby said in comments broadcast on Sunday.

His words came days after a suicide bomber killed three Chadian troops in the northern town of Kidal, demonstrating how al Qaeda-linked Islamists are still able to strike in the heavily-defended towns they once controlled.

DAKAR (Reuters) – West Africa nations are racing ahead of their Central African counterparts in deepening economic integration and slashing red tape to open up regional business opportunities, a private equity fund manager said.

Patrice Backer, chief operating officer for Advanced Finance and Investment Group (AFIG), said his $72 million fund was invested in finance, mining and agricultural services in the small but rapidly growing economies along Africa’s Atlantic Coast.