Northern Mali conflict

Two German army pilots have died after their helicopter crashed near Gao, eastern Mali. At the time of the crash, the helicopter was monitoring "confrontations", Deutsche Welle reported.

A Turkish firm has said it is manufacturing an advanced quick-setup field clinic for an EU training mission in the West African nation of Mali. 

Turmaks, based in the capital Ankara, has started to manufacture the special three-container clinic for the use of the European Union Training Mission in Mali (EUTM Mali), a force for training the country's military. 

Unknown assailants attacked and withdrew inside a U.N. police base in the Malian city of Timbuktu on Feb. 5 morning, the United Nations said, while security sources said a Malian army checkpoint in the city had also come under fire.

Two United Nations peacekeepers and a civilian contractor were killed on Nov. 28 in a rocket attack on a U.N. base in northern Mali claimed by the jihadist Ansar Dine group, which the Security Council warned could be a war crime.

Mali declared a ten-day state of emergency following the hostage siege, which took place at a hotel in the capital Bamako on Friday.

Suspected Islamist militants had seized 170 people hostage in the Radisson Blu hotel in the centre of the capital before the building was stormed by security forces.

At least 27 people are feared dead after Islamist extremists with guns and grenades stormed a luxury hotel in Mali, SkyNews reported on Friday.

The TV channel attributed the information to UN peacekeepers, who have seen the bodies in the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako.  

Special forces stormed the hotel and escorted guests out.

Gunmen stormed into luxury Radisson hotel in Bamako, Mali’s capital, on Friday. At this moment two terrorists are believed to be holding 170 hostages according to a senior security force source and other witnesses in the area.

At least 12 people were killed during a nearly 24-hour siege of a hotel in central Mali seized by suspected Islamist gunmen that ended on August 8 as security forces stormed the building and released some of the United Nations workers trapped inside. 

Mali's warring factions on June 18 looked close to signing a landmark peace deal to end years of unrest after pro-government militia leaders agreed to evacuate a flashpoint town and the government dropped arrest warrants for several rebels.

Al-Qaeda's North Africa arm has claimed responsibility for two attacks against the United Nation's MINUSMA peacekeeping mission in Mali this week, the Mauritanian Al-Akhbar news agency reported May 31.