Friday, February 22, 2019
Algiers, Feb 22, 2019 – Clashes broke out in the Algerian capital Friday between security forces and demonstrators opposed to a bid by ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to run for a fifth term, AFP correspondents said. Police in riot gear fired tear gas and...
Friday, February 22, 2019
Oubari, Libya, Feb 22, 2019 (AFP) – In the southern Libyan city of Oubari, shops are shuttered and tension is palpable, as residents fear an imminent incursion by forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar. We “dread the repercussions of military operations...
Friday, February 22, 2019
Feb 22, 2019 – French armed forces have killed a top jihadist leader in an air and ground ambush in Mali, the government said on Friday, ending a years-long hunt for a man accused of masterminding the kidnapping of Westerners in the Sahel region. Djamel Okacha,...
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Feb 21, 2019 – Armed men have murdered a security official in southern Libya, the UN-backed government said Thursday, a day after forces opposed to it said they had entered his town. The interior ministry of the internationally-recognised unity government...
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Feb 21, 2019 – An Algerian fighter jet has crashed during an overnight training exercise, killing its two crew members, the defence ministry said on Thursday. The Russian-made Sukhoi SU-24 plane went down in an uninhabited farming area in the province of Tiaret,...
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Cairo, Feb 20, 2019 – Egypt hanged nine men on Wednesday for the 2015 assassination of the prosecutor general, judicial sources said, bringing to 15 the number of executions it has carried out this month. Hisham Barakat was killed in June 2015 when a car bomb...
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Rabat, Feb 20, 2019 – Moroccan security forces Wednesday fired water cannon at public school teachers demonstrating in Rabat and wielded batons to block their route to the royal palace, injuring dozens, AFP correspondents said. Ambulances evacuated the injured...
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Bamako, Feb 20, 2019 (AFP) – A senior government official and a journalist abducted by suspected jihadists in Mali have been freed, a security source told AFP on Tuesday. Makan Doumbia, the prefect of Tenenkou commune in central Mali, “was freed Monday...
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Cairo, Feb 19, 2019 – A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the heart of ancient Islamic Cairo, killing three policemen who were chasing him through its narrow alleyways, medical and security sources said on Tuesday. Monday evening’s bombing,...
Monday, February 18, 2019
Tripoli, Feb 17, 2019 – Fourteen Tunisian oil workers kidnapped in Libya were freed Sunday night after three days in captivity and are in good health, the Tunisian consul in country said. Armed men seized the 14 Tunisians from a bus on Thursday as they were...
Saturday, February 16, 2019
Abuja, Feb 16, 2019 – Nigeria’s electoral watchdog on Saturday postponed presidential and parliamentary elections for one week, just hours before polls were due to open. Polling had been due to start at nearly 120,000 polling units in Africa’s most...
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Feb 14, 2019 – The US carried out an air strike against Islamist group Al-Qaeda in southern Libya on Wednesday night, Tripoli’s UN-backed Government of National Accord said. The strike near the town of Ubari, some 900 kilometres (550 miles) south of the...
Thursday, February 14, 2019
N’Djamena, Feb 13, 2019 (AFP) – The publisher of a newspaper in Chad was given a six month suspended prison sentence on Wednesday after being convicted of defaming the brother of President Idriss Deby Itno, a court said. Judicial proceedings were launched...
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Feb 13, 2019 – Three prisoners convicted of killing a police officer were hanged in Egypt on Wednesday, bringing to six the number of executions carried out by Egyptian authorities in two weeks, Amnesty said. Amnesty International’s Najia Bounaim condemned...
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Feb 13, 2019 – Two policemen and a civilian were killed on Wednesday in a village in remote southwestern Niger, a region that until now has been spared jihadist attacks, local officials said. Five armed men, arriving on three motorcycles, attacked a market in...
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Algiers, Feb 13, 2019 – President Abdelaziz Bouteflika sacked Algeria’s police chief on Wednesday, the interior ministry said, in a move that comes weeks ahead of April elections. The ministry, in a statement carried by the APS news agency, said Bouteflika...
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Tunis, Feb 12, 2019 – Officials in Tunisia have been “dragging their feet” on efforts to repatriate Tunisian children of Islamic State group members from camps in Syria, Iraq and Libya, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The rights group, quoting...
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Rabat, Feb 12, 2019 – Moroccan authorities said Tuesday they had arrested three French nationals suspected of links to the Islamic State jihadist group for alleged involvement in “financing terrorism”. The suspects, one of whom is of Algerian...
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Strasbourg, France, Feb 12, 2019 (AFP) – The European Parliament on Tuesday adopted a new fishing agreement with Morocco that covers the adjacent waters of the disputed Western Sahara, angering the Algerian-backed Polisario Front independence movement. The...
Monday, February 11, 2019
Libya, Feb 7, 2019 – A military push in southern Libya which strongman Khalifa Haftar says is aimed at rooting out “terrorists” and foreign fighters has sparked backlash from an ethnic minority and the UN-backed government. The offensive risks...
Monday, February 11, 2019
Bamako, Feb 10, 2019 – Mali’s chief Muslim leaders on Sunday called for the resignation of Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga at a mass rally, accusing his government of failing to halt jihadist attacks and allowing “moral depravity”. Huge...
Monday, February 11, 2019
Algiers, Feb 10, 2019 (AFP) – Algeria, whose president Abdelaziz Bouteflika will seek a fifth term in April, gets most of its income from oil but was hit hard by falling crude prices in 2014. Some key facts about the North African country of 42 million people....
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika declared he will seek a fifth term in April elections in a message published by state media Sunday, after he was endorsed by his party and the ruling coalition. The 81-year-old head of state uses a wheelchair and has rarely been...
Sunday, February 10, 2019
Algiers, Feb 10, 2019 – Algeria’s ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is to seek a fifth term in April elections, state media announced Sunday, despite health issues that have kept him largely out of the public eye for years. The 81-year-old head of...
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Tripoli, Feb 6, 2019 (AFP) – More than 16,000 migrants returned home from conflict-wracked Libya in 2018 under a “voluntary return” programme run by the International Organization for Migration, the agency said Wednesday. “16,753 irregular...
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Tunis, Feb 6, 2019 – Thousands of Tunisian teachers took to the capital’s streets Wednesday to demand bonuses and improved working conditions months into a strike that has disrupted schools across the country. The demonstrators, heeding calls to protest by...
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Paris, Feb 6, 2019 (AFP) – French warplanes have carried out fresh attacks against an armed convoy which crossed into Chad from Libya, after initial strikes over the weekend failed to halt its advance, the French army said Wednesday. Acting in conjunction with...
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Libya, Feb 6, 2019 (AFP) – A force led by Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar, engaged in an offensive in southern Libya, said late Wednesday it had seized one of the country’s biggest oil fields without a fight. Ahmad al-Mesmari, spokesman for the...
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Ouagadougou, Feb 4, 2019 – Fourteen civilians were killed in a jihadist attack in northern Burkina Faso near the Mali border, the military said on Monday. The army conducted raids in three northern provinces in response and said it had “neutralised”...
Monday, February 4, 2019
Niamey, Feb 4, 2019 – The United States turned over a communications and operations centre to the Niger army on Monday to help the African nation battle Boko Haram, a statement said. The planning and operations control centre, worth $16.5 million (14.4 million...
Monday, February 4, 2019
Ouagadougou, Feb 1, 2019 – Authorities in Burkina Faso told mining companies on Friday to toughen up “anti-jihadist” security measures in the wake of the kidnapping and killing of a Canadian geologist last month. The body of Kirk Woodman was...
Monday, February 4, 2019
Paris, Feb 4, 2019 – French warplanes on Sunday struck twice to halt an armed group that crossed into northern Chad from Libya in a column of 40 pickup trucks, the French military said, adding it acted at Chad’s request. A rebel group opposed to President...
Monday, February 4, 2019
Rabat, Feb 2, 2019 (AFP) – An outbreak of swine flu in Morocco has left nine people dead in the past week, the kingdom’s health minister said Saturday. The spread of the H1N1 virus was “normal” for the time of the year, said Anas Doukkali,...
Monday, February 4, 2019
Cairo, Feb 2, 2019 (AFP) – Egypt’s military said Saturday it had killed eight jihadists in air strikes in the Western Desert, as it leads a major campaign against the Islamic State group. “The air force targeted the terrorist base… the...
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Cairo, Feb 3, 2019 – Egyptian lawmakers on Sunday tabled proposed constitutional changes that would allow President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to extend his rule beyond 2022, legislators said. The bill submitted to speaker Ali Abdel Aal calls for several amendments to...
