As torrential rains sweep through Central and West Africa, floods have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands across the region.

UNICEF says children in West and Central Africa are increasingly exposed to extreme heat, creating health concerns.

Israel’s national anthem was loudly jeered before its soccer team kicked off play at the Paris Olympics against Mali.

Defense chiefs of West Africa on Thursday proposed an ambitious plan to deploy a 5,000-strong “standby force” to fight the region’s worsening security crises, a measure that analysts say might not work due to challenges of funding and division within the regional bloc.

Mali’s ruling junta has banned the media from reporting on activities of political parties and associations, a day after barring political parties and groups.

The military juntas ruling Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger say they have agreed to create a joint force to fight extremist violence in their nations.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was on hand Tuesday for the arrival in Rome of an Italian family of three just hours after their release from two years of captivity in the African nation of Mali.

West Africa’s regional bloc says the coup-hit nations of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are in haste to withdraw their membership of the association without following its rules of exit.

Monthslong tension between three coup-hit countries in West Africa and the regional bloc known as ECOWAS boiled over when the nations announced their immediate withdrawal from the bloc, accusing it of a lack of support and “inhumane” coup-related sanctions.

Three West African nations of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have quit the regional economic bloc known as ECOWAS.

The United Nations peacekeeping chief says he was very satisfied with the strong support of many countries for its far-flung operations at a recent ministerial meeting, despite “headwinds and challenges and problems.”.

Authorities say dengue fever is on the rise in Mali, posing a new threat to the West African nation struggling with extremist attacks and political turbulence.

Niger’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the French ambassador has been asked to leave the country.

It’s an exciting year for seniors but it’s also a time to look ahead to the next chapter in their lives: college.

The deadline has arrived for Niger’s military junta to reinstate the country’s ousted president, but the West Africa regional bloc that has threatened a military intervention faces prominent appeals to pursue more peaceful means.

Regional mediation efforts to reverse the coup in Niger collapsed as soon as they started.

Defense chiefs from West African nations finalized an intervention plan and urged militaries to ready resources after negotiations deadlocked with Niger’s military junta, which says it is severing military agreements with France, its former colonial ruler.

Months after hundreds of French troops left Burkina Faso, ousted by the ruling military junta, speculation is mounting that the war-torn nation will fill the void with fighters from Russia’s shadowy mercenary outfit, the Wagner Group.

As extremist violence in West Africa’s Sahel region spreads south toward coastal states, the United States military has launched its annual military training exercise which will help armies contain the jihadi threat.

France’s foreign ministry says French troops deployed to fight extremists in Burkina Faso will withdraw within a month following a demand by the country’s military rulers — which came after a similar move from neighboring Mali.

Forty six Ivorian soldiers who were detained for six months in Mali have returned home to cheers and celebrations.

A United Nations official has warned that more than 25,000 people could face starvation in conflict-plagued parts of West Africa next year.

West African regional mediators have reached a deal with Guinea's military leader to organize new elections by January 2025.

Protesters are gathering in Burkina Faso's capital where West African regional mediators are stepping up pressure on the country's new junta.

Ezi Magbegor had 16 points and five blocks to help Australia beat Canada 75-72 in the women’s World Cup.

Bec Allen was instrumental in Australia’s 69-54 win over Serbia scoring 16 points in the World Cup.

Nirra Fields scored 17 points and Shay Colley added 11 to help Canada beat France 59-45 in the women’s basketball World Cup.

Lauren Jackson had one basket in her first game for Australia in 12 years as the Opals lost to France 70-57 on the opening day of the women's World Cup.

Survivors have described how more than 100 people were killed in Mali in an attack by a Jihadi group just as villagers in central region were beginning to enjoy a peace deal signed last year in the West African country.

Russia has engaged in under-the-radar military operations in at least half a dozen countries in Africa in the last five years using a shadowy mercenary force analysts say is loyal to President Vladimir Putin.

A family member says Mali's former Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga died at a clinic on Monday in the capital, Bamako.

Far from the icy battlefields of Ukraine, Russia President Vladimir Putin is busily advancing Russia's footholds and influence in Africa and the Middle East.

West Africa is grappling with a wave of military coups over the past 18 months that has some wondering which country could be next.

The African Union has announced in a tweet that it has suspended Burkina Faso until constitutional order is restored in the West African country.

France says one of its soldiers has been killed in a mortar attack on a base in Mali.

Stolen artifacts that date back to 800 A.D. were returned to the Republic of Mali on Nov. 22 with the help of a Rice University professor, federal authorities said.

French President Emmanuel Macron says his country will withdraw more than 2,000 troops from an anti-extremism force in Africa’s Sahel region starting in the coming months.

A trial has begun for a U.S. Marine who is one of four American servicemembers charged in the hazing death of a U.S. Army Green Beret in Africa.

French President Emmanuel Macron suggested France will pull troops from Mali if the country’s institutional instability persists and inhibits the fight against Islamic extremists.

A top officer says Mali's military has released the transitional president and prime minister from detention.

A representative of Mali's military says Mali’s transitional president and prime minister will be released from detention gradually after resigning in the presence of international arbitrators.

The African Union and United Nations say mutinous soldiers have arrested Mali's transitional president and prime minister and taken them to military headquarters.

Macron joined by video from Paris a summit organized in N'Djamena, Chad with the leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania. It is made up of soldiers from Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania who operate in cooperation with French troops. “This was unexpected a year ago,” Armand Joseph Kabore, director of Labo Citoyennetes, a think tank in Burkina Faso told The Associated Press. ”(The G5 Sahel) force has to be more present, more of a deterrent, and capable of efficiently opposing forces of evil,” he said. ___Mednick reported from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

French soldiers stand in an honour guard on Thursday Jan.7, 2021 as the hearse convoy of late French forces soldiers rides on the Alexandre III bridge in central Paris. Three other French soldiers died just five days earlier in similar circumstances . The airstrike was part of a larger operation by French troops aimed at fighting Islamist extremists in Africa’s Sahel region. Parly spoke after five French troops were killed last week in two separate attacks involving improvised explosive devices. ___This story has been corrected to show that five French troops were killed last week, not six.

French soldiers stand in an honour guard on Thursday Jan.7, 2021 as the hearse convoy of late French forces soldiers rides on the Alexandre III bridge in central Paris. French troops have been present in Mali since 2013 when they intervened to force Islamic extremist rebels from power. “French troops could not stay forever...so many and (with) such mixed results. A top official at the French presidency said the death of French soldiers will not in itself be the basis for a strategy change. The French military operation enjoys broad support at home.

File-This June 4, 2020, file photo shows Women and children walk in a makeshift site for displaced people in Kongoussi, Burkina Faso. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the funds will help some 10 million people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger for the remainder of this year and through next year with nutrition, food, health services, water and sanitation, shelter, education, protection and support to survivors of gender-based violence. Both Guterres and Lowcock appealed for $2.4 billion to cover the remaining months of 2020 and 2021. U.N. spokesman Dujarric said donors pledged $985 million for this year and $704 million for 2021 and beyond. The United States was next pledging $274.8 million followed by Denmark with $183.1 million, the European Union with $122.8 million and Germany with $118.2 million.

File-This June 4, 2020, file photo shows Women and children walk in a makeshift site for displaced people in Kongoussi, Burkina Faso. Compared to the average of the last five years, acute food insecurity has increased by a staggering 514% in Burkina Faso, 130% in Mali and 144% in Niger, his agency said. “What I hope is through this conference, for these three countries, we’ll get up to about a billion dollars for 2020,” Lowcock said. “That will certainly enable us to keep the situation under control and contain the worst difficulties. “So you don’t get to choose where you have to start the journey, but you do have to take the first steps.”

As late as last week, the United Nations still listed the deposed president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, as an upcoming speaker. But the final countries addressed the U.N. gathering on Tuesday afternoon with no word from Mali. Before this latest coup, extremists were moving south into more densely populated areas, adding to the frustrations that fed massive protests in the weeks ahead of the coup. He delivered a prerecorded address Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly’s annual meeting of global leaders, being held virtually this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Emirati foreign minister also warned against what he said were “the expansionist ambitions of some countries in the region."

(ORTM TV via AP)BAMAKO – The head of Mali’s military junta said Monday he will serve as the vice president in a transitional government that is supposed to bring about a return to democracy, more than a month after he led a coup to overthrow the president. The 15-nation West African region bloc known as ECOWAS had demanded that the president and prime minister in any transitional government must be civilians, not from the military junta. It was not immediately clear whether they would accept Goita as vice president as he would still hold a prominent role in government. A president and vice president were named Monday, but there was no mention of a prime minister. However, divisions between the opposition and the junta have begun to deepen, with the opposition condemning any attempt to have a military leader in the transitional government.

People hold a banner showing Col. Assimi Goita, leader of the junta which is now running Mali and calls itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, outside a conference in Bamako, Mali, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020. Leaders of Mali's military junta who deposed the West African country's president last month are meeting with political parties and civil society groups to outline a transition to a civilian government and, ultimately, elections.

(AP Photo)ABURI – West African leaders have emphasized that Mali’s junta should nominate civilian transitional leaders within days to lead the nation toward elections, Ghana’s president said following a regional summit. Six leaders from the West African regional economic bloc, ECOWAS, met with Mali's junta Tuesday in Ghana, whose president now serves as the bloc’s new chairman. They agreed the junta must install a civilian president and vice president. ECOWAS insisted that the transitional leaders must be civilians, rejecting the junta’s suggestion that the leaders could come from the military. Those sanctions could be lifted once a transitional civilian government is in place, it said in its Tuesday statement.

BAMAKO – Mali’s former president Moussa Traore, who ruled the West Africa nation for more than 22 years, has died at age 83, according to his son Idrissa Traore. Traore seized power in a military coup in 1968, eight years after Mali gained independence from France, and amid growing discontent with then-president Modibo Keita, the country's first president. Traore and other officers set up the Military Committee for National Liberation, abolished the constitution and established a regime. Traore ruled the country as its military leader until 1979 when he installed himself as civilian president of a one-party state. On Tuesday, the military junta currently ruling Mali met with a group of West African leaders in Ghana to outline a transition to civilian rule.

(AP Photo)BAMAKO – Divisions deepened between Mali's military coup leaders and the country's political opposition movement on Sunday after the ruling junta announced a plan that would allow a military leader to oversee an 18-month transitional period. The junta proposed that the transition be led by either a military or civilian leader, which leaves open the possibility that the military officers who seized power could remain at the helm for another 18 months until elections are organized. The 15-nation West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS has warned that by Tuesday the junta must designate a civilian leader to head a one-year transition period or else the country could face further sanctions. ECOWAS has already stopped financial transfers into the country and has closed its borders with Mali. Junta leader Col. Assimi Goita said he hoped for the support of the international community after the military leaders agreed to reduce the transition period to 18 months after initially proposing three years.

PARIS Mali has been suspended from a global body of French-speaking countries after a military junta overthrew the West African country's democratically elected president. The permanent council of the International Organization of Francophonie decided on the suspension after holding an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in Mali. The decision by the French-speaking body follows the suspension of Mali from the 15-nation West African regional bloc ECOWAS. It held unsuccessful talks with the military junta in an attempt to get it to agree to immediately return Mali to civilian rule. While the international community has been pressing for a quick return to civilian rule, the military junta now running Mali is seeking to prolong its rule until 2023.

(AP Photo)BAMAKO The military junta now in charge of Mali insisted Monday that former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had resigned of his own free will and was not overthrown, as the officers now running the country try to prolong their rule until 2023. The junta's spokesman, Ismael Wague, later said that no timeline had been established for elections to return to the country to civilian rule. President Keita told us that he has resigned, that he was not forced to do so and that he does not want to return," said former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday. The ECOWAS mediators initially had called for Keita to be reinstalled as president, but that prospect has become unlikely amid an outpouring of public support in Mali for the coup d'etat. He offered concessions and regional mediators intervened, but his opponents made it clear they would accept nothing short of his departure.

Demonstrators hold a placard in French reading "This regime is a coronavirus for Mali" as they protest in the capital Bamako, Mali Friday, June 5, 2020. Thousands of people demonstrated in Mali's capital on Friday to demand the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the release of opposition leader Soumaila Ciss, and denounce corruption, arbitrary arrests and the organisation of April's legislative elections. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)BAMAKO BAMAKO, MaliThousands of people demonstrated in Mali's capital on Friday to demand the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. They also called for the release of opposition leader Soumaila Ciss, who was kidnapped by armed men in March while campaigning for the elections. Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the president of a decade.