Libya: Fighting outside Tripoli rages on as UN struggles to find a solution to the crisis
Tripoli, April 10, 2019 – The battle for Libya’s capital intensified as the UN Security Council prepared to meet Wednesday to discuss the crisis gripping the North African country, where armed rivals are locked in a deadly power struggle. The closed-door...
Libya: Thousands flee Libya clashes
Tripoli, April 8, 2019 – Fighting raged around Tripoli and an air strike closed its only functioning airport Monday, as Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar defied international calls to halt his advance on the capital. Thousands were also reported by the United...
Mali: Dozen dead as boat sinks on way to market in Segou
Bamako, April 8, 2019 (AFP) – A boat headed for market laden with merchandise and vendors capsized in the Niger River in Mali, claiming about a dozen lives, authorities said Monday. The victims had been on their way Sunday to a weekly market in Markala, in...
Libya: Flights halted at Tripoli airport as fighting continues, death toll reaches 35
Tripoli, Libya, April 8, 2019 – A warplane carried out an air strike Monday against the Libyan capital’s only functioning airport and halted all flights, aviation authorities said, as fighting raged for control of Tripoli. A security source at Mitiga...
Algeria: Growing unease with the role of the Generals in the Algerian transition
By Arezki Daoud – Tomorrow Friday, 5 April 2019, there will be rain in the morning in Algiers, but it will likely dissipate on time for after Friday prayers, allowing protesters to go back to the streets, to the chagrin of the current government officials....
Mali’s humanitarian problem: too much focus on boots on the ground
April 4, 2019 – Mali is in dire need of humanitarian aid, with more than three million people requiring food and basic assistance even as billions of dollars go to security missions, a UN official bemoaned Thursday. Since January, the United Nations has received...
Algeria: Pressure grows on remaining Bouteflika operatives to resign
Algiers, April 4, 2019 – Algerians are planning mass protests Friday in a key test of whether they can keep up the pressure for sweeping reforms following ailing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s resignation. Opponents of the old regime have taken to social...
Libya: UN’s Antonio Guterres in hopeless Libya
Tripoli, April 3, 2019 (AFP) – United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Libya Wednesday ahead of a conference aimed at paving the way for elections to help end years of chaos in the country. “I have just arrived in Libya, totally...
Libya: The collapse of the social and economic infrastructure in Libya
Zintan, Libya, April 2, 2019 – By Imed Lamloum and Nawas Al-Darraji – Hundreds of blue pipes lay abandoned in Libya’s Zintan, leaving residents struggling to get enough water after the 2011 revolution halted their spot on the world’s largest...
Libya: Haftar troops headed toward Tripoli, fear of more violence coming
Tripoli, April 4, 2019 – Forces led by a controversial Libyan military chief manoeuvred Thursday for a threatened advance towards Tripoli as UN chief Antonio Guterres warned of the growing risk of violence. The self-proclaimed Libyan National Army of Khalifa...Live updates: Crises in Algeria and Libya
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Mali: French military doctor killed in Mopti, soldier wounded
April 2, 2019 – A French military doctor was killed in Mali when his armoured vehicle hit an improvised explosive device during an operation against “armed terrorist groups”, the French presidency and army said Tuesday. France’s army for the...
Algeria: President Bouteflika resigns
The North Africa Journal: The Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, officially notified the President of the Constitutional Council, his decision to end his term as President of the Republic. More details coming. Meanwhile, the leaking of the news of a secret...
Algeria: Bouteflika backer and businessman Ali Haddad arrested
Algiers, March 31, 2019 – Ali Haddad, one of Algeria’s top businessmen and a backer of ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was arrested as he tried to cross into Tunisia, an Algerian security source said Sunday. Haddad, who Forbes magazine describes as...
Algeria: New Algerian government cabinet will fail to ease political tension
Photo: New protests in the capital Algiers after announcement of new government cabinet. Algiers, March 31, 2019 – Protest-hit Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Sunday named a new government headed by recently appointed Noureddine Bedoui, a statement...
Algeria: Private jets banned from flying out of Algeria, amid reports of arrest of pro Bouteflika businessman Ali Haddad
Algiers, March 31, 2019 – Algeria, which has been hit by weeks of anti-government protests, on Sunday banned all private aircraft from taking off or landing until the end of the month. In a NOTAM, or notice to airmen, aviation authorities said the ban ...
Algeria: Opposition sees the General’s call for impeachment of president as a ploy to maintain regime
By Arezki Daoud – 26 March 2019: Army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah made a stunning recommendation today (March 26) when he said impeaching the president may be the best option left to keep the country stable. His statement came a day after several operatives of the...
Algeria: Central Bank seeks to appease growing public fear over capital flight as political crisis persists
There has been growing public fear over regime operatives moving money from Algeria to foreign banks. Rumors have been circulating that several businessmen tied to the regime, including the Kouninef brothers, have contracted multi-million dollar loans over the past...
Algeria: Media campaign against financial backers of Bouteflika: the Kouninef brothers
The North Africa Journal – 26 March 2019: The Kouninef brothers have been the focal point of several influential newspapers and have been under attack by social media commentators for their alleged strong ties and support of the Bouteflika regime. The Kouninef...
Algeria: General Gaid Salah proposes impeachment of Bouteflika as a way out of the crisis
March 26, 2019 – Algeria’s army chief called Tuesday for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to be declared unfit to govern, following weeks of mass protests demanding the ailing leader step down after two decades in power. The move would potentially clear the...
Sahel: Mali fires senior army officers, disbands Dogon militia after killing of Fulanis
Bamako, March 24, 2019 – By Serge Daniel and Kassim Taore: Mali’s government on Sunday announced the sacking of senior military officers and the dissolution of an ethnic militia, a day after the massacre of more than 130 Fulani villagers, including women...
Morocco: Teachers take to the streets of Rabat to demand better conditions
Rabat, March 24, 2019 – Thousands of teachers flooded the streets of the Moroccan capital on Sunday to demand better conditions after a nighttime protest dispersed by riot police left dozens wounded. Teachers on temporary contracts have been on strike since...
Sahel: Massacre in Mali’s Mopti region claims more than 130 lives in case of ethnic conflict
Bamako, March 23, 2019 – Dogon hunters killed more than 100 people (updated to 130) in an attack on a Fulani village in central Mali on Saturday, local officials said, as a UN delegation visited the country. “The new toll is 115 dead” in the village...
Burkina Faso: Jihadists are wrecking havoc on northern Burkina
March 22, 2019 – An offensive by Islamists in northern Burkina Faso has left dozens of civilians dead and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, Human Rights Watch said Friday. “Atrocities by Islamist armed groups in Burkina Faso’s northern...
Chad: Boko Haram launches deadliest attack on military outpost in Chad
N’Djamena, March 22, 2019 – Twenty-three soldiers were killed in southwestern Chad on Friday when they came under attack from Boko Haram jihadists, a military official told AFP. “Boko Haram elements attacked the Chadian army position at around 1 am,...
Tunisia: Army kills three Islamic State suspects in Kasserine
Tunis, March 20, 2019 – Tunisian security forces have shot dead three Islamic State-linked militants suspected of involvement in the grisly killings of shepherds in the restive Kasserine region, the interior ministry said Wednesday. “Three terrorists were...
Sahel: Former PM Boubacar announces candidacy for Mauritania presidential race
Nouakchott, March 16, 2019 – Former prime minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar on Saturday announced he would stand in Mauritania’s presidential election as an “independent candidate”, but with support from the opposition Islamist party...
Tunisia: France arrests brother-in-law of ex-Tunisia dictator Ben Ali, wanted by Tunisia
March 18, 2019 (AFP) – France said Monday it had arrested and detained Belhassen Trabelsi, the brother-in-law of ousted Tunisian leader El-Abidine Ben Ali, who had been on the run for three years after fleeing Canada. Prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux in the southern...
Sahel: Three Nigerian poachers arrested in Niger with massive haul
Niamey, March 17, 2019 (AFP) – Three Nigerian poachers were arrested in Niger with a massive haul of slaughtered game from W National Park which straddles the borders of Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin, officials said Sunday. Forestry agents discovered elephant...
Sahel: Jihadists attack army camp in Mali’s Mopti region, kill scores of soldiers
Bamako, March 17, 2019 – An attack by suspected jihadists Sunday on an army camp in central Mali killed 23 soldiers, military sources said Monday, raising an initial toll of 21. A local politician and military sources had given the initial toll after a dawn...
Sahel: Niger-Boko Haram conflict intensifies, scores killed in Diffa
Niamey, March 13, 2019 – Niger said Wednesday it had killed 33 Boko Haram “terrorists” and seized vehicles and weapons in an operation in the Lake Chad region in the country’s southeast. “Offensive actions carried out on Tuesday...
Sahel: More soldiers killed by an IED in Mali’s Mopti region
Bamako, March 12, 2019 – Six Malian troops were killed on Tuesday when their vehicles drove over improvised land mines in the centre of the West African country, the army said. Two army escort vehicles hit improvised explosive devices (IEDs) “leaving two...
MEA Risk’s 1Q2019 Sahel podcast update
Season 1, Episode 5 The Sahel 1Q2019 Update Things are moving fast in the Sahel. Libya’s LNA southwestern offensive has increased instability in parts of the Sahel and the Sahara. In Mali, insurgencies and war are accelerating. And in Nigeria, Boko Haram and its...