News Snapshot:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has vowed to broaden support for the violence-wracked Sahel beyond the realm of security, pitching the United States as a better partner than Russia, which has been expanding its footprint in the region. Speaking to AFP on the highest-level visit ever by a US official to Niger, Blinken called for moving on from what was often seen as a military-first approach by the United States and former colonial power France, which wound up a controversial nine-year operation in Mali in November. "We're in the midst of building something relatively new," Blinken said in an...