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Sahel: Jihadists strike in Niger’s Tillaberi region
A jihadist attack in Niger's volatile "tri-border" zone with Burkina Faso and Mali has killed dozens of members of a self-defence militia, local sources told AFP on Thursday. The assault took place on Tuesday at Adab-Dab, a village about 55 kilometres (32 miles) from...
Inside West Africa’s drug trade
By Selim Saheb Ettaba: West Africa is a small but strategic hub for smugglers moving drugs from Latin America to Europe and the Middle East. What is Africa's role in the drug trade? Africa appears to have become an attractive hub for drug transshipments mainly...
Sahel: Niger opens first military school in Niamey
Facing a spate of jihadist attacks, Niger on Friday opened its first military school in the capital Niamey to train future officers. "We have set in place with this school the final link in the chain for training our military," President Mohamed Bazoum said at the ...
Sahel: UN and NATO mulling over support to Sahelian armies in combating militant groups
NATO is studying options to bolster support for the multinational G5 Sahel force in the troubled three-borders region of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where a surge in jihadist violence has cost thousands of lives, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a...
Sahel: The country of Niger faces Covid and cholera at once
First Covid Delta cases emerge in Niger The first cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 have been recorded in the impoverished Sahel state of Niger, which until now has been relatively spared in the pandemic, the authorities said Friday. Genetic sequencing found six...
Sahel: 16 soldiers killed in jihadist-hit southeast Niger
An attack by hundreds of Boko Haram fighters on a town in Niger's jihadist-plagued southeast killed 16 soldiers and wounded nine others, Defence Minister Alkassoum Indatou told AFP on Wednesday. In the assault late on Tuesday "the positions of our defence and security...
A destabilized region: Awful week in the Sahel
Introduction by Arezki Daoud: For years, several analysts made dire predictions about where the Sahel was headed. Insurgencies, political turmoil, environmental disaster and humanitarian crises were among the series of problems forecast by experts. Today, all these...
Niger: Torrentials rains and raging floods kills dozens in Maradi and Agadez
Heavy rains that have lashed Niger since June have claimed 64 lives, authorities said on Saturday, as floods and landslides hit the West African country normally used to drought. In a statement read out on national television, Niger's cabinet said 32 people had died...
Niger: Several regions experiencing severe flooding, dozens killed
Heavy rains lashing arid Niger since June have killed 35 people and made more than 26,500 homeless, the civil protection agency said Saturday. Twenty people died in house collapses, 15 drowned and 24 were injured, a statement said. A total of 26,532 people had to...
Sahel: Another attack in SW Niger at border with Burkina Faso
Fifteen soldiers have been killed and six more are missing after a "terrorist" attack in southwest Niger, near the border with Burkina Faso, the defence ministry announced Sunday. The soldiers were first ambushed and later hit by an improvised explosive device as they...
Niger: Civilians, soldiers and armed attackers killed in Tillaberi clash
Five civilians, four soldiers and 40 armed attackers were killed Sunday in a clash in Niger's restive southwest region near the border with Mali, the government said. Around 100 heavily armed "terrorists" riding motorcycles attacked the Tchoma Bangou village, striking...
Sahel: Despite announcing troop drawdown plan, France insists it will not leave the Sahel
France to start closing military bases in Mali by year-end President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that France would start closing its bases in northern Mali before the end of the year, part of a drawdown of French troops fighting Islamist extremists in the Sahel. "The...
Sahel: France announces arrest of ISGS’ Abou Dardar
By Didier Lauras with Amaury Hauchard in Bamako French forces in Mali have captured a man they describe as a "high-ranking fighter of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara" (ISGS), the French military said Wednesday. Dadi Ould Chouaib, also known as Abou Dardar, was...
Niger: Bandits ambush and kill policemen in Agadez
Three Nigerien policemen and a gendarme were killed overnight Wednesday when their patrol was ambushed on the border with Algeria, local sources said. The men were "killed by bandits near Assamaka", a desert town hosting a security post near Niger's northern border...
Sahel: France to announce withdrawal of troops from Sahel as region slides into uncontrollable violence
By Daphné Benoit French President Emmanuel Macron is set to announce Thursday a partial withdrawal of French troops deployed in the Sahel region of Africa for almost a decade to battle jihadist insurgents, three sources with knowledge of the plan told AFP. The issue...
Benin: Growing risk of Jihad contagion from the Sahel in West Africa’s Benin
Jihadists operating near Benin's borders with Burkina Faso and Niger may coopt intensifying communal conflicts in the country's north as they seek to extend their influence, a Dutch security report said on Thursday. AFP reports that several jihadist groups operate in...
Niger: Two Chinese workers kidnapped in Mbanga
Armed men have kidnapped two Chinese employees of a mining company in a volatile area near western Niger's borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, the regional governor said Monday. "Two Chinese nationals were kidnapped... by armed men in Mbanga" on Sunday night, the...
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 border with Mali, as the country celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a local official told AFP. ...
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 Mali, bringing to 31 the number of troops killed in four days. Niger's defence ministry said "heavily armed men" had attacked troops serving under the...
Sahel: Clashes in Niger intensify, dozens killed
Niger army killed 24 'suspected terrorists': government Niger troops killed 24 "suspected terrorists' after they sought to escape after being captured in the west of the country, the government said Sunday. The suspects had been planning an attack on the market town...
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