Tuareg people

In a riot of color, music and dance, thousands of Tuareg have flocked to the Sebeiba festival that marks the end of an ancient tribal feud and which once a year transforms an oasis town deep in the Algerian Sahara.

The nomadic Tuareg tribe of the Sahara are so progressive that they put liberal societies to shame. For centuries the tribe would cross the desert, oftentimes led by the blind who used their heightened sense of smell and taste to choose the right path.

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.

A Dutch UN helicopter crashed on Tuesday in northern Mali near the city of Gao, killing two people.

The cause of the crash remains unclear and so far there have been comments neither from the Dutch defence ministry nor from the UN peacekeeping mission, the BBC reports.

A peacekeeper and two children died on March 8 as militants shelled a UN base in northern Mali, heightening security fears as police hunted jihadists who launched a deadly Bamako nightclub assault.
      
The UN's MINUSMA force said more than 30 rockets were fired at its barracks in the rebel stronghold of Kidal from 5:40 am (0540 GMT).
      

Police in Mali March 8 hunted for the killers of two Europeans and three Malians in a jihadist attack on a nightclub, as a deadly assault on a UN barracks in the north heightened security concerns.