Libya closes 2025 still caught in a web of armed rivalries, political fragmentation, and recurring violence that...
Security & Defense Bound
Sahel: Surging Jihadist Violence Batters the Sahel, Exposing Government Weakness
By Arezki Daoud: A surge in jihadist violence has rocked the Sahel region through late September and early October...
Algeria Plans Major Military Budget Increase for 2026
Algeria is set to approve a substantial increase in defense spending for 2026, marking the largest allocation ever...
Libya: EU begins Operation IRINI to enforce Libya arms embargo
Rome, May 7, 2020 - The European Union has launched a delayed naval mission to enforce an arms embargo on Libya, the...
Algeria: Government braces for intensification of Hirak after pandemic ($)
Three separate security reports commissioned by the presidency and reviewed by President Tebboune have all warned of...
Egypt intensifies attacks on insurgents after killing of soldiers
Cairo, May 3, 2020 - Egypt's interior ministry said Sunday 18 suspected militants were killed in North Sinai in a...
Libya: After his forces suffered major losses, warlord Haftar wants a truce ($)
April 30, 2020 - Libya's UN-recognised government on Thursday rejected a truce unilaterally called the day before by...
Egypt: Al-Sisi orders three-month renewal of state of emergency
Cairo, April 28, 2020 - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday ordered the renewal for three months of a...
Sahel: Chad abolishes death penalty for terrorism
Chad on Tuesday abolished the death penalty for terrorist activities, Justice Minister Djimet Arabi told AFP. Chad had...
Week-in-review podcast: Lockdowns, curfews and government abuse
This is a retrospect on North Africa and the Sahel region, for the week ending 24 April. The review, which focuses on...
Sahel: Gunmen attack villages in Mali’s Mopti region, kill dozen civilians
Bamako, April 23, 2020 - At least twelve people have been killed in an attack on several villages in central Mali, a...
Sahel: After Chad captured 58 Boko Haram suspects, 44 die mysteriously
By Ali Abba Kaya, Djimet Wiche, and Camille Malplat in Libreville: The deaths by apparent poisoning of 44 suspected...
Sahel: Tense election runoff in Mali
Acts of intimidation and allegations of vote buying marred the final round of legislative elections in Mali on Sunday...
Egypt: Insurgents strike in Cairo, killing one soldier and wounding others
Cairo, April 14, 2020 - An Egyptian policeman was killed and three others wounded in a shootout Tuesday with armed...
Libya: Warlord Khalifa Haftar unleashes terror on Tripoli population
Tripoli, April 14, 2020 - The forces of Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar rained rockets on the capital Tripoli...
Egypt: Policeman killed in shoot out with militants in Cairo
Cairo, April 14, 2020 - An Egyptian policeman was killed and another wounded in a shootout Tuesday with armed...
Algeria: Clan warfare inside military command rages, turmoil in intel agencies (s)
One of the most hated Generals in the Algerian military high command, General Bouazza Wassini, has been dismissed and...
Setback in fight against Boko Haram: Chad to withdraw from regional force
N'Djamena, April 10, 2020 - Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno has said his country's troops, who have been deployed...
Sahel: Intense fighting in Lake Chad, dozens killed in Chad-Boko Haram conflict
N'Djamena, April 9, 2020 - The Chadian army said Thursday it had wound up an offensive against Boko Haram jihadists in...
Africa: How to lock down a 20-million-people city?
Lagos, March 31, 2020 - Roads in Africa's largest city Lagos were deserted Tuesday after Nigeria locked down its...
Sahel: Chad announces new measures to confront Boko Haram in Lake area
N'Djamena, March 27, 2020 (AFP) - Chad has declared two departments near Lake Chad a "war zone", giving local...
Libya now fighting two wars: a civil war and Covid-19
Tripoli, March 25, 2020 - Libya has reported its first case of the novel coronavirus, a particular source of concern...
Sahel: Massacre in Chad
N'Djamena, March 24, 2020 - Ninety-two Chadian soldiers have been killed in the deadliest attack ever by Bok o Haram...
Sahel: More insurgent attacks across the Sahel
March 25, 2020 - Two soldiers in Mali and three civilians in Burkina Faso died in suspected jihadist attacks in the...
Sahel: The Norwegians want nothing to do with the crisis in Mali, and they are right!
Opinion by Arezki Daoud: Unlike their Swedish neighbors, the Norwegian people told France that they will not send...
Covid-19: Morocco deploys troops on the streets
Rabat, March 22, 2020 - Groups of Moroccans went out to pray and to protest in the streets at the weekend, defying...
Libya: Troops of warlord Khalifa Haftar kill civilians in Tripoli
Tripoli, March 19, 2020 (AFP) - Libya's unity government said Thursday that five women were killed and five civilians...
Despite global health crisis, Arab regimes continue to repress
March 18, 2020 - Egyptian police arrested four prominent women dissidents Wednesday after they demanded the release of...
Sahel: Niger hits Boko Haram hard, kills dozens of insurgents
Niamey, March 16, 2020 - Fifty fighters of Nigeria's Islamist group Boko Haram were "neutralised" during an overnight...
Sahel: Swedish soldiers headed to Mali in yet another French operation
Stockholm, March 16, 2020 - The Swedish government plans to send up to 150 soldiers to Mali to support a French...
Egypt: Six suspected insurgents killed in Sinai
Cairo, March 16, 2020 - Egyptian police have killed six militants in a shootout in the restive northern Sinai region,...
Sahel: Couple kidnapped in Burkina Faso in 2018 regains freedom
Bamako, March 14, 2020 - A Canadian woman and her Italian partner kidnapped in Burkina Faso in 2018 have been found...
Sahel: The forced depopulation of central Mali
Mopti, Mali, March 14, 2020 (By Amaury Hauchard) - After years of ethnic massacres and unrelenting jihadist attacks,...
Sahel: Africom commander speaks of ineffective European strategy in the Sahel
Washington, March 10, 2020 - European anti-jihadist efforts in the troubled Sahel region are "insufficient" and...
Sahel: More killings in Mali
Bamako, March 11, 2020 - Unidentified gunmen killed 10 people and burned down a village in central Mali, local...
Sahel: US appoints new Sahel representative
Washington, March 8, 2020 - The State Department announced Sunday it had nominated J. Peter Pham, the envoy to...
Sahel: US mulling more engagement in the Sahel
Washington, March 3, 2020 - The United States is planning to appoint a special envoy for the Sahel crisis amid fears...
Egypt executes insurgent leader Hisham Ashmawy
Cairo, March 4, 2020 - Egypt executed an ex-special forces officer turned top Islamist militant, Hisham Ashmawy, on...
Sahel: Central Mali riven by communal violence
Mopti, Mali, March 4, 2020 - Less than a year after more than 160 Fulani civilians were massacred at dawn in Ogossagou...
Algeria: Soldier and insurgent killed in clash in Tafassour
Critical incident tracking firm MEA Risk LLC said on 2 March, a military sweeping operation in Tafassour, province of...
Egypt: Dozens sentenced to death in Egypt over terror attacks
Cairo, March 2, 2020 - (photo of Hisham Ashmawy) An Egyptian court Monday sentenced to death an ex-special forces...
Sahel: Mali soldiers killed by rocket attack in Mondoro
Bamako, March 2, 2020 - Six Malian soldiers died and 10 were injured when militants armed with rocket launchers...
Libya: UN point men for Libya, Ghassan Salame, resigns
Tripoli, March 2, 2020 (AFP) - The UN's envoy to war-plagued Libya, Ghassan Salame, on Monday announced his ...