Rukmini Callimachi

Read the latest stories and analysis from Rukmini Callimachi.

French defense minister Jean Yves Le Drian addresses reporters during a press conference held at the defense ministry in Paris, Tuesday Jan. 15, 2013. Map at left shows the operations zone in Mali. France carried out new airstrikes overnight against Islamist fighters in central Mali.(AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

French triple troops in Mali, prepare for assault

Baba Ahmed, Rukmini Callimachi · January 15, 2013 5:00 am

Al-Qaida carves out own country in Mali

Al-Qaida carves out own country in Mali

Rukmini Callimachi · January 14, 2013 5:00 am

French citizen Nicole Obre Toure carries a bag to her car as she prepares to leave the region where she has lived for 12 years, in Segou, central Mali, Monday, Jan. 14, 2013. As Islamist militants gained ground Monday morning, Toure decided to move from the village where she lives into Segou, the regional capital. Once there, however, she learned that the French government had ordered the immediate evacuation of French citizens from the area. Despite intensive aerial bombardments by French warplanes, Islamist insurgents grabbed more territory in Mali Monday and moved closer to the capital, French and Malian authorities said. (AP Photo/Harouna Traore)

Mali rebels make gains, vow to avenge French bombs

Baba Ahmed, Rukmini Callimachi · January 14, 2013 5:00 am

Franch Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, right, speaks during a press conference, in Paris, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013. Le Drian said hundreds of French troops are involved in an operation that destroyed a command center of Islamic rebels in Mali. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Hundreds of French troops drive back Mali rebels

Baba Ahmed, Rukmini Callimachi · January 12, 2013 5:00 am

FILE - In this Sept. 16, 2012 file photo, fighters from Islamist group Ansar Dine leave after performing a public amputation, severing the hand of a young man found guilty of stealing rice, in Timbuktu, Mali. In recent months, al-Qaida and its allies have taken advantage of political instability within Mali to push out of their hiding place and into the towns, taking over an enormous territory which they are using to stock arms, train forces and prepare for global jihad. And as 2012 draws to a close and the world hesitates, delaying a military intervention, the extremists who seized control of the area earlier this year are preparing for a war they boast will be worse than the decade-old struggle in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/File)

AP IMPACT: Al-Qaida carves out own country in Mali

Rukmini Callimachi · December 31, 2012 8:58 pm

ADVANCE FOR SATURDAY DEC 22, 2012 In this Nov. 5, 2012 photo, mothers try to engage their malnourished children in playtime as part of the treatment program at a nutritional health clinic run by Action Against Hunger with the support of UNICEF, in Moussoro, Chad. In this Sahel nation, childhood malnutrition and related mortality persist at alarming rates, despite the fact that many affected families live within a day's journey of internationally-funded nutrition clinics. One reason is that families, bound by local custom, choose instead to seek traditional treatments, treatments which can lead to the very infections that kill their undernourished children.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Traditions in Chad harm, kill underfed children

Rukmini Callimachi · December 23, 2012 9:55 pm

In this Nov. 4, 2012 photo, health workers measure the height of a boy during a mobile clinic to identify cases of underweight, stunted, or malnourished children, in Michemire, in the Mao region of Chad. A survey conducted in the county found that 51.9 percent of the children are stunted, one of the highest rates in the world, according to a summary published by UNICEF. Stunting is the result of having either too few calories, too little variety, or both. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Lack of food stunts Chad children, damages minds

Rukmini Callimachi · December 15, 2012 8:00 pm

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2012 file photo, Mali Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York. A policy officer and an intelligence official have confirmed that Mali's prime minister was arrested at his home late on Monday, Dec. 10, 2012, by the soldiers who helped lead a recent coup. For several weeks, tension has been mounting between the soldiers who led Mali's March 21 coup and Diarra, the civilian prime minister they were forced to appoint when they handed back power to a transitional government.(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

Mali’s PM forced to resign, after arrest by junta

Baba Ahmed, Rukmini Callimachi · December 12, 2012 12:45 am

African Union asks UN for immediate action on Mali

African Union asks UN for immediate action on Mali

Rukmini Callimachi · November 30, 2012 1:30 am

Junior Mutsima, 11, who was wounded by a bullet to the thorax Nov. 19 2012, sits on his bed at the Heal Africa hospital in Goma Monday Nov. 26, 2012. Regional leaders meeting in Uganda called for an end to the advance by M23 rebels toward Congo's capital, and also urged the Congolese government to sit down with rebel leaders as residents fled some towns for fear of more fighting between the rebels and army.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay )

Rebels patrol in Congo city as deadline passes

Rukmini Callimachi, Melanie Gouby · November 26, 2012 5:00 am

Mali: Islamist attack secular rebels in north

Mali: Islamist attack secular rebels in north

Rukmini Callimachi · November 16, 2012 5:08 pm

In this picture taken Tuesday, July 17, 2012, a Peul nomad stares at a visitor's camera as he and others shop for fabric and other goods while attending the livestock market in Bermo, Niger, 200 kms (125 miles) north of Maradi. This is a region where it is in livestock that a man settles disputes, pays the dowry for his future bride and leaves inheritance to his sons. For generations, nomads have lived in a precarious equilibrium with the sky above them. When the first rains come, they head north toward the Sahara desert, where the grass is said to be saltier, packed with minerals. They time their movements according to the clouds, waiting for the second major downpour, before making a U-turn to head back to the greener south. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Sale of Niger nomad’s last camel is sign of hunger

Rukmini Callimachi · August 18, 2012 4:00 am