Fifty-one civilians in northern Mali were massacred and 12 troops were killed in an ambush in neighbouring Burkina Faso, the authorities said on Monday, highlighting the security crisis gripping the two fragile states.
“Terrorists” on Sunday invaded the villages of Karou, Ouatagouna and Daoutegeft near Mali's border with Niger, a military officer told AFP.
“ (They) massacred everyone,” the source said.
A document by the local prefecture, seen by AFP, said 51 people had been killed in the co-ordinated attacks, while homes had been looted and cattle stolen.
A local official said: “20 civilians were massacred in Karou, 14 civilians were killed in Ouatagouna, and other civilians were killed in the hamlet of Daoutegeft".
The assailants arrived by motorbike, taking the villagers by surprise, he said.
An official at a fourth village said his locality had also come under attack.
An army unit has been sent to provide help, a military officer said, but a source at a Malian NGO said communications with the remote area were poor as terrorists had attacked telecoms sites.
Mali, a landlocked and impoverished state in the heart of West Africa's sub-Sahara region, has been battling a terrorist insurgency since 2012.
The crisis began with unrest in the north of the country that spread to Mali's ethnically volatile centre and then to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.
Armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS are steering the campaign today.
Thousands of civilians and troops have died and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.
Mali has suffered two coups since August last year, and on July 20 military leader Colonel Assimi Goita survived an attempted assassination at a mosque in Bamako.
Alioune Tine, an independent expert on human rights in the sub-Sahara who reports to the United Nations, last week warned that a “critical threshold” had been breached in the country's security situation.
At the end of an 11-day visit, he highlighted “the failure of the institutions of state,” as well as “relentless attacks on civilian populations” by terrorists. The armed forces themselves have committed violence against civilians, he said.
In Burkina Faso, meanwhile, 12 troops were killed and eight were wounded on Sunday in an ambush near the border with Mali, the government said.
“Members of the ground forces and the rapid intervention force GARSI were ambushed” in the north-west Bouclé du Mouhoun region, Communications Minister Ousseni Tamboura said on Monday.
The attack occurred near the village of Dounkoun in Toeni district.
President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said on Twitter that “we continue to wage without concession the war the obscurantist and barbaric forces have imposed on our country.”
A security source told AFP that the ambush had happened at about 3pm GMT, and vehicles had been destroyed or captured.
The attack was “revenge for the death of two jihadist leaders who were active in the same Bouclé du Mouhoun region, who were neutralised [on Saturday] by the armed forces,” the source said.
He named the two as Sidibe Ousmane, also known as “Mouslim,” and spiritual leader Bande Amadou.
A special army unit killed them following exchanges of fire between Diamasso and Bouni, in Kossi province, the government said on Sunday in a statement.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
