Russia's goal, according to Constantin Gouvy of the Clingendael Institute, is to replace Western powers such as France as the ...

Ivory Coast became the latest African nation to expel French troops, taking control of the last remaining French military base in the country.

For well over a decade, jihadist violence has plagued the Sahel, a semi-arid belt stretching along the Sahara desert's southern rim from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.