A coalition of JNIM jihadists and Tuareg separatists ambushed a Malian army convoy leaving Anefis in the Gao region on July 18; Vanguard Nigeria reported at least 50 soldiers killed, while initial AP dispatches cited scores killed or captured, and Mali's government said a counterattack was under way

Criminal extraction and trafficking of gold outside licensing rules funds Sahel insurgencies and launders drug proceeds across Latin America and South-East Asia, accelerated by record prices.

A decade-long jihadist insurgency across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, now accounting for over half of global terrorism deaths and displacing millions.

An al-Qaeda raid on Diori Hamani International, Niger's air-force base and drone fleet, killed 11 soldiers and 2 civilians, the second strike on the airport this year as Sahel jihadists move on cities

Al-Qaeda's Sahel coalition taxes and attacks gold sites to fund ~6,000 fighters; Niger kills 13 in mine raids aimed at drying up financing

A pre-dawn offensive on April 25-26 struck Kati, Bamako, Gao, Kidal, Mopti and Sévaré simultaneously; Defence Minister Sadio Camara was killed by a car bomb at his Kati home

Al-Qaeda's Sahel affiliate has torched 300+ tankers and cut National Road 1; petrol in the capital reportedly jumped 400%, and a 1 June landmine on the Bamako-Kayes highway killed 8