An overnight assault on Niger’s main international airport has prompted a partial drawdown of U.S. diplomatic staff from Niamey and renewed scrutiny of the country’s security trajectory and external partnerships. Shortly before midnight on January 29, 2026, armed...
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Defense: Mauritania and Spain Use Naval Exercises to Bolster Atlantic Maritime Security
Mauritanian and Spanish naval forces have conducted joint exercises off the coast of Nouadhibou, underscoring a growing security partnership in a stretch of Atlantic waters that has become central to migration control and maritime surveillance. The drills show how...
Mali: Gold Mining Site in Sikasso Region Hit by Armed Group
Armed attackers struck the Morila gold mine in southern Mali during the night of January 4 to January 5, 2026, causing material damage to the site, according to multiple sources. The mine is located in the Sikasso region, near Mali’s border with neighboring countries....
Burkina Faso: Deep Supply Weaknesses in Ouagadougou Amid Seasonal Butane Shortages
Gas shortages in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, have become a recurring issue at the end of each year. The problem now appears regularly between December and January, when demand for butane rises with year-end festivities and cooler harmattan, a dry, dusty...
Sahel: Jihadist Attack Kills Local Prefect in Southwestern Niger
A jihadist attack in Niger targeted the residence of the prefect (governor) of Torodi during the night of Sunday, January 4, into Monday, January 5. Torodi, the last major town before the border with Burkina Faso, lies roughly 30 miles south of Niamey. At least seven...
Flashpoints: How Emirati and Qatari Competition Is Redrawing the Red Sea Map
Charlotte Touati - Mondafrique: Two competing poles are now clearly taking shape in the contest for control over access to the Red Sea. The first, structured around the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and the Abraham Accords, includes Ethiopia and Somaliland, which has...
Niger Dissolves Hundreds of Private Security Firms in Major Industry Overhaul
Niger’s government has shuttered 400 private security companies by ministerial decree, implementing a sweeping...
Sahel: Drone Incident Escalates Diplomatic Rift on Algeria–Mali Border
The diplomatic crisis between Algeria and Mali, long simmering over border security and regional influence, escalated...
Niger Deepens Strategic Ties with Russia After Break from France
Civil nuclear cooperation and uranium development signal a shift in Niamey's global posture In a development that...
Sahel: No break during the Eid holiday: Five villagers killed in Niger’s Tillaberi region
Five people were killed on Wednesday in an attack on a village in the western Tillaberi region of Niger, near the...
Sahel: Chad military junta said it defeated FACT insurgents
Chad's military junta on Sunday declared victory after a month-long operation against rebels in the northwest of the...
Sahel: French journalist Olivier Dubois kidnapped in Mali
By Serge Daniel, Amaury Hauchard in N'Djamena - Missing French journalist Olivier Dubois says he has been kidnapped in...
Sahel: More bloodshed in Niger as new attack in Banibangou claims 15 soldiers
Niger's government said Wednesday that 15 of its soldiers were killed in a "terrorist attack" near the border with...
Chad military junta says counterinsurgency campaign is working, rules out dialogue
Rebels who launched an offensive in northern Chad, sparking clashes that claimed the life of veteran president Idriss...
Libya asks Turkey to get its troops and mercenaries out
Libya's new interim government urged Turkey Monday to "cooperate" over the withdrawal of foreign troops and...
Sahel: Clashes in Niger intensify, dozens killed
Niger army killed 24 'suspected terrorists': government Niger troops killed 24 "suspected terrorists' after they...
Sahel: Chad army and opposition rebels clash in Kanem
Government troops and rebels clashed on Thursday in a region of western Chad where president Idriss Deby Itno was...
Mali: Three UN peacekeepers wounded in Mali attack
Three United Nations peacekeepers were on Sunday seriously injured in a rocket attack on a military base in the north...
Chad: Hunt of alleged killers of president Deby expands to Niger
Chad's new ruling junta on Sunday vowed to root out a rebel leader accused of "war crimes", seeking help from...
Sahel: Lawlessness in northern Chad
Northern Chad is a restive region and a breeding ground for rebel groups which oppose the N'Djamena authorities. A...
Sahel: The extraordinary end of a reign: Day after he was proclaimed president of Chad, Deby allegedly dies in battle
Deby replaces Deby: what a surprise! A four-star general who is a son of Chad's slain president Idriss Deby Itno will...
Mali: Fighting between hunters and insurgents wrecks havoc on Mopti region
About 40 people have been killed in recent clashes between jihadists and traditional hunters, the government of...
Sahel: Chad claims it killed hundreds of “rebels” near Libya border
The Chadian army said Monday it had killed 300 rebels in the north of the country at the weekend, adding that it had...
Sahel: West Niger gripped by deadly violence
Nineteen civilians were killed when armed men raided a village in west Niger close to the border with Mali, a local...
Sahel: Terror attack in Burkina Faso claims lives of eight militiamen
Eight civilian members of an auxiliary force in Burkina Faso's anti-jihadist campaign died in an ambush on Wednesday...
Sahel: More European troops headed to Mali. Danish special forces are next
Denmark plans to deploy about 100 special forces to Mali early next year to boost the elite anti-jihadist European...
Mali: UN says insurgents who attacked peacekeepers killed in counter-attack
More than 40 jihadists, including a senior commander, were killed last week after they attacked United Nations...
Niger’s new president term starts amid intense violence
Niger's defence ministry said Sunday that four of its soldiers had been killed the day before in twin "terrorist"...
Africa: With terror groups intensely fixated on Africa, security outlook feels gloomy
By Didier Lauras - From the arid expanses of the Sahel into the Sinai Peninsula and now Mozambique, Africa is proving...
Sahel: Violence in Niger as country prepares to inaugurate a new president
By Boureima Hama - Elite troops in Niger thwarted an "attempted coup" early Wednesday, a security source said, just...
Sahel: UN says French air strike killed civilians in Mali, France rejects findings
A French air strike killed 19 civilians in central Mali in January, according to a UN report, seen Tuesday by AFP,...
Mali: French military accused of killing six people in raid on Talataye, France denies
Six people were killed in northeastern Mali on Thursday in disputed circumstances, with French forces saying a strike...
Sahel: Niger’s Tahoua region targeted by terror groups, dozens killed in fresh raids
Scores of people have died in the deadliest suspected jihadist massacre ever to hit Niger, the government said Monday,...
Sahel: Mass killings continue, another deadly week in Mali and Niger
Mali: Raids on army post near Ansongo claim lives of 33 soldiers By Serge Daniel - At least 33 soldiers were killed in...
Sahel: Unfolding humanitarian crisis in Niger with growing masses of refugees from Nigeria and from within
The United Nations warned Tuesday that bloodshed in northwestern Nigeria was fuelling an exodus into neighbouring...
Sahel: No French troop drawdown from the Sahel, Macron announces escalation ahead
Macron says France to “decapitate” Al-Qaeda in the Sahel France will intensify its efforts to help "decapitate"...
Burkina Faso Prime Minister proposing to negotiate with insurgents
Burkina Faso Prime Minister Christophe Dabire on Thursday floated the idea of negotiations with jihadist groups, an...
Sahel: Month-long French military campaign in Mali leads to 100 insurgents dead, says France
A hundred jihadists were killed this month in a joint Franco-Malian offensive in the West African country's lawless...
Sahel: Feuding herders and farmers in central Mali endorse peace
Representatives from herder and farmer communities that have become ensnarled in violence sparked by jihadist attacks...
Sahel: Mali police and army repress anti-French army protest
Malian security forces fired tear gas at dozens of demonstrators in the capital Bamako on Wednesday during an...
Sahel: Roadside bomb kills soldiers in south Niger
Four soldiers were killed and eight others seriously injured by a roadside bomb in southeastern Niger, a region hit by...
Sahel: Violence intensifies in Mali as France announces the killing of 15 insurgents
France's armed forces said Friday they had killed around 15 jihadists near Mali's border with Burkina Faso, where an...
Sahel: Foreign forces unable to bring stability to Mali, four UN peacekeepers killed in Bambara Maoude
The death toll from an attack on UN peacekeepers in Mali has risen to four after another soldier died from his wounds,...
Sahel: Reports of 20 villagers killed in Mali region of Bounti
France said on Tuesday it had killed dozens of jihadists in a weekend air strike in central Mali, while several...
Mali military junta ratchets up repression against political figures
The Malian authorities on Thursday charged six figures, including a former prime minister, with seeking to mount a...
Sahel: Three French troops killed by EID in Hombori, Mali
Three French soldiers were killed Monday in Mali when their armoured vehicle struck an explosive device in the Hombori...
Sahel: France signals willingness to allow talks with Jihadists in the Sahel
France could back talks with some jihadist elements in Africa's restive Sahel region, a source in President Emmanuel...
Sahel: Funding the insurgency with illegally acquired gold
Several "suspected terrorists" were arrested and more than 40,000 sticks of dynamite and detonator cords for illegal...
Sahel: Why the G5 Sahel force remains completely ineffective
Three years ago West African nations launched a joint force touted as a giant's stride in the fight against Islamist...