This update has been compiled by Christer Wilkinson from a variety of sources.

Conflict Group Report
Readers are reminded that the Crisis Group (www.crisisgroup.org) publishes a detailed monthly report on all rebel attacks and other violent incidents in the three countries covered in this news summary.

Hostages
This month there was no news on the western hostages, but a report on the 33 women and 6 children abducted from Ngalewa near Diffa nearly two years ago indicated that none had so far been released.

Migrant trends
The IOM DTM site reports were available in time for this report.

DTM Niger (May 2019)
A total of 2000 migrants a day were reported, almost equally balanced (in-out). Traffic into Niger from Libya was greater than into Niger but traffic to Algeria north was greater than from Algeria south. The greatest number recorded was at Arlit.

DTM Tchad (May 2019)
The monitoring stations in the north of Tchad are still inoperative. The IOM reports a total of only 350 migrants each day with largest flows from the north at Kouri and arriving in the south at Sarh.

DTM Mali (May 2019)
A total of only 238 migrants a day recorded almost equally balanced (in-out). The flows were mostly to the north into Algeria and east into Niger.

Niger news
At the end of the month another attack by rebels was reported on a military base near Inates in the west of Niger. Oddly no casualties were reported.

Hama Amadou, a former prime minister was requested to be extradited from Benin to Niger by the current Niger President.

The IOM confirmed that 20,000 migrants had been rescued from the desert in Niger the last 3 years.

A new parliamentary electoral code was adopted in Niger: the opposition boycotted the vote.

Following the long running dispute over taxation the “Orange’ Telecom Company decided to leave Niger and is looking for buyers.

In md June there was an attack on a police station near Niamey which killed at least two officers. Around the same time a joint military mission by French, American, and Niger soldiers reportedly killed some 18 EIGS rebels in the west of the country. Early in June an American vehicle was hit by a mine near Oullam without casualties.

In June the Niger president announced that he had agreed to have a UAE base in northern Niger to help protect the border with Libya. It should be noted that UAE support the Haftar led government based in the east of the country.

In Maradi a Church was burnt in mid-June following the arrest of a local Muslim Iman. Near Diffa a threat was posted to local Christians telling them to leave. Several families have left for Niamey. In the same town four reported suicide bombers were shot in June.

The new airport building at Niamey was opened in Mid-June having been constructed by the Turkish group Summa, which has won several other government contracts in Niger.

Orena, (previously Areva, the French Nuclear group)) announced the closure of another mine in Niger due to the low price of Uranium.

The UN announced that some 11% of the population in Niger needed humanitarian assistance.

Mali news
The attacks on Dogon villages in central Mali continued throughout the month.

An attack in early June was initially determined to have 95 causalities but this was downgraded to 24 children and 12 adults. The attack prompted a demand that the UN mission extend its scope to the south at its regular time extension at the UN Security Council. This was agreed, and an expansion of their scope to the central region commenced in late June.

Unfortunately there was yet another attack in the same region which claimed some 38 lives late in June. As usual, the casualty count in both these incidents varies between reports.

A new alliance supporting the president in the Mali parliament was announced in early June. The mandate of all the parliamentary representatives was also extended to 2020 “to better meet the requirements for elections”, against some opposition protests.

Another meeting of the CAS, the agency monitoring the Algiers peace agreement for the north of Mali was held in Kidal this June. Kidal is still being administered by rebel groups and has no civil Mali administration according to reports. Lack of progress in this area has held up the overall peace progress.

There was yet another report about Iyad Ag Ghali, the founder of Answar Eddine and later GSIM. His family apparently lives in Tin Zaouatine, (on the Algerian side) and he has received medical treatment in Tamanrasset.

Tchad news
The US embassy requested the government to allow demonstrations, after the recent banning of some events. The Tchad government promptly rejected Washington’s “injunctions”.

Two members of the CCMSR (a rebel group based in Libya) who had been captured were tried and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Some 11 people (of which only four were in custody) were sentenced to life for being mercenaries and attempting to support a coup in the CAR.

There was a big push at a trade conference in the capital N’Djamena to get investment in Tchad from the Arab world.
The international company Glencore, which lent the Tchad government funds to buy out some of the Tchad oil assets from other western companies, wants to leave Tchad and is looking for a buyer for its remaining oil assets.

It was reported that Tchad has yet to pay its contribution to the G5 grouping.

The Singapore Company Olam has become a shareholder in the national cotton company “Cotton Tchad” and has paid off last year’s debts to cotton producers in Tchad in an attempt to boost production. Cotton production has plummeted in recent years from around 300k tones to 20k tones.

A previous rebel leader, Mohammed Nour (who led the coup attempt in 2008) and two other suspects were arrested in France for crimes against humanity as part of their rebel movements. These three rebel leaders have been living in France for some time and the timing of these arrests was questioned by some reports. Another opponent of the Tchad government, Abakar Tollimi was arrested in June.

In one report both the Chadian Supplier Traders and the National Union of Traders complained about delays in receiving payment from the government for goods and services.

The mayor of N’djamena was suspended for insubordination. There was also yet another shuffle of government ministers in the Tchad government.
In the south, the frontier with the RCA is open again for trade after several years being closed.

A high member of the military junta ruling Sudan (at that time) paid a discrete visit to Tchad to discuss security and to try and negotiate a final agreement for a cease fire with the rebels in Darfur.