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Mali Forces Kill Senior Figure in ISIS Affiliate

Malian soldiers are pictured during a patrol with soldiers from the new Takuba force near Niger border in Dansongo Circle, Mali August 23, 2021. REUTERS/ Paul Lorgerie
Malian soldiers are pictured during a patrol with soldiers from the new Takuba force near Niger border in Dansongo Circle, Mali August 23, 2021. REUTERS/ Paul Lorgerie
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Mali Forces Kill Senior Figure in ISIS Affiliate

Malian soldiers are pictured during a patrol with soldiers from the new Takuba force near Niger border in Dansongo Circle, Mali August 23, 2021. REUTERS/ Paul Lorgerie
Malian soldiers are pictured during a patrol with soldiers from the new Takuba force near Niger border in Dansongo Circle, Mali August 23, 2021. REUTERS/ Paul Lorgerie

Malian forces killed Abu Huzeifa, a commander for a West African affiliate of the ISIS group, during a large-scale operation in the northern region of Menaka, the Malian authorities said in a statement read on state television on Monday.
Huzeifa's death on Sunday had been confirmed after the operation in the region's Indelimane sector, they said, but did not give further details.
The US State Department's Rewards for Justice program offers a bounty of up to $5 million for information on Huzeifa for his alleged participation in a 2017 attack in neighboring Niger that killed four US and four Nigerien soldiers, Reuters reported.
Over the past decade, attacks by groups linked to al Qaeda and ISIS have killed thousands of people in Mali, Niger, and neighboring Burkina Faso, destabilizing West Africa's central Sahel region.
As of March, the protracted security and humanitarian crisis had displaced over 3 million people in the region, according to the International Organization for Migration.

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Indonesia Joins BRICS Bloc as Full Member

Staff worker stands behinds national flags of Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and India to tidy the flags ahead of a group photo during the BRICS Summit at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Monday, Sept. 4, 2017. (Wu Hong/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Staff worker stands behinds national flags of Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and India to tidy the flags ahead of a group photo during the BRICS Summit at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Monday, Sept. 4, 2017. (Wu Hong/Pool Photo via AP, File)
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Indonesia Joins BRICS Bloc as Full Member

Staff worker stands behinds national flags of Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and India to tidy the flags ahead of a group photo during the BRICS Summit at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Monday, Sept. 4, 2017. (Wu Hong/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Staff worker stands behinds national flags of Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and India to tidy the flags ahead of a group photo during the BRICS Summit at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center in Xiamen, southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Monday, Sept. 4, 2017. (Wu Hong/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Brazil’s government, which holds the BRICS presidency in 2025, said on Monday evening that Indonesia will formally join the bloc of developing countries as a full member.
Indonesia's foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that it welcomed the announcement and that “BRICS membership is a strategic way to increase collaboration and partnership with other developing nations.”

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, had previously expressed its desire to join the group as a means of strengthening emerging countries and furthering the interests of the so-called Global South.

Brazil, which holds the bloc's presidency in 2025, said in a statement that member states approved Indonesia's entry by consensus as part of an expansion push initially endorsed at the 2023 BRICS summit in Johannesburg.

The South American nation noted that Jakarta's bid got the green light from the bloc in 2023 but the Southeast Asian country asked to join following the presidential election held last year. President Prabowo Subianto took office in October.

“Indonesia shares with the other members of the group support for the reform of global governance institutions, and contributes positively to the deepening of cooperation in the Global South,” the Brazilian government said.

China, the world’s second largest economy, “warmly welcomes and congratulates Indonesia” on joining the bloc, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.

He described Indonesia as a “major developing country and an important force in the Global South” that will “make a positive contribution to the development of the BRICS mechanism.”

BRICS was formed by Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2009, and South Africa was added in 2010.

Last year, the alliance expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.

Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members and a few others have expressed interest.

The organization was created as a counterweight to the Group of Seven, comprised of developed nations. Its name derives from an economic term used in the early 2000s to describe rising countries expected to dominate the global economy by 2050.