North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Egypt Moves to Shore Up Somalia as Regional Alignments Shift in the Horn of Africa
Egypt has expanded the scope of its military and security engagement in Somalia following Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, a self-declared breakaway region on the Gulf of Aden. Egyptian officials view the move as part of a broader shift in Horn of Africa geopolitics that could affect Red Sea security, Nile water negotiations, and regional power balances.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
Sahel: Mali junta carries out air strikes on ‘terrorists’
Mali's military junta said it carried out air strikes on Wednesday against "terrorist groups" that were planning attacks in the north of the country. "Preventive FAMa (Malian Armed Forces) air strikes followed by an airborne operation targeted armed terrorist groups,...
Sahel: Dozens dead in clash in north Burkina Faso
The general staff of the Burkina Faso military said 53 people died in Koumbri, near Ouahigouya in the north of the country on 4 September, when the 12th commando infantry regiment was deployed to secure the resettlement of populations who have left the area for more...
Leaders of Francophone Africa gripped by fear, strengthen their own security
By Arezki Daoud: Leaders of Francophone Africa are in state of panic following a series of coups that toppled their peers in Mali, Burkina, Guinea, Niger and now Gabon. Last week, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame announced the retirement of hundreds of military...
Sahel: France considering selective troop pullout from Niger
The French army is holding talks with Niger's military over withdrawing "elements" of its presence there following a coup, a defence ministry source said on Tuesday. There has been speculation that France will be forced into a full military pullout from Niger after...
Western Sahara: Violence erupts in Western Sahara as drone hits pro-independence militants
A Polisario Front commander and three Sahrawi fighters were killed Friday in the disputed Western Sahara as a United States delegation visited the region, the official Saharawi news agency SPS reported. The Western Sahara dispute dates back to 1975, when colonial...
Niger: Anti-France sentiment spikes in Niger, tense weekend of protests ahead
Niger braced Friday for a weekend of planned anti-French rallies as tensions mount between the country's new military rulers and its traditional ally. A coalition of civil society groups opposed to the presence of French forces in Niger has called a three-day sit-in,...
Sudan: Deadly violence grips Darfur
Sudan's army chief on Tuesday visited Egypt on his first trip abroad since the outbreak of war in April, with the latest violence killing dozens of civilians in battle-scarred Darfur. As Abdel Fattah al-Burhan headed for talks with key ally Egyptian President Abdel...
Sahel: Sanctions imposed against Niger to trigger catastrophic humanitarian crisis
The United Nations warned Tuesday that the political crisis in Niger and the sanctions imposed against the coup regime risk triggering "catastrophic" humanitarian effects. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said it had revised contingency planning for Niger since a...
Sahel: Mounting tensions in northern Mali, as army strikes positions of ethnic Tuaregs
Former rebels in northern Mali on Tuesday accused the armed forces of carrying out new strikes on their positions, reflecting mounting tensions in the flashpoint region. A spokesman for the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) told an AFP reporter that the armed...
Libya says it captured IS militant behind three attacks in 2018
A leader of the Islamic State (IS) group who allegedly planned and sponsored three deadly attacks in the Libyan capital Tripoli in 2018 has been captured, the country's prime minister said Thursday. "Our forces apprehended on Tuesday a leader of the terrorist...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Chad: Five soldiers killed in Lake Chad region
Five Chadian soldiers have been killed by jihadists in the Lake Chad region, a vast marshland that has become a bolthole for Islamist rebels, President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said on Wednesday. "This latest loss, which can be ascribed to a terrorist ambush by the...
Sahel: 18 civilians killed in Jihadist attack in west Niger
Eighteen civilians have been killed in two suspected jihadist attacks in the west of Niger near the Sahel nation's border with Mali, the government said Tuesday. The attack happened on Sunday when unidentified "armed bandits" on motorbikes attacked a truck travelling...
Sahel: Jihadists looking to expand beyond Sahel: 9 dead , including French national in north Benin ambush
Update: Benin attacks toll rises to nine, including Frenchman Nine people including a Frenchman were killed this week in attacks in a national park in Benin's remote north bordering troubled Niger and Burkina Faso, according to a government update. The toll was the...
Mali: The demise of the historic Timbuktu and the man who helped destroy it
The fabled shrine city of Timbuktu was reduced to a "shadow of its former self" by Islamist jihadists, and residents are still living in fear today, the International Criminal Court heard Tuesday. Lawyers representing 1,946 victims of the year-long jihadist occupation...
Conflicts: How the UAE pays mercenaries in Darfur to wage war in Libya in support of Khalifa Haftar
Providing mercenaries in Libya's internal conflict has become the main source of revenue for armed groups from Sudan's own war-torn Darfur region, the United Nations said in a report Friday. The report, drawn up by UN experts in charge of monitoring the arms embargo...
Security/Sahel: Joint Burkina Faso/Niger counter-insurgency operation claims neutralizing dozens of jihadists
The armies of Burkina Faso and neighbouring Niger said Thursday they had killed around 100 "terrorists" in a joint military operation against jihadists on the border between November 25 and December 9. The operation managed to "neutralise around 100 terrorists" and...
Sahel: Niger president says weapons from Libya fuel violence in Sahel
Niger President Mohamed Bazoum on Monday urged his country's allies to step up the fight against arms trafficking from Libya, which he said is fuelling the Sahel's jihadist insurgency. "The partners' biggest failure has been their weak involvement in the fight against...
Sahel: Gunmen kill seven former rebels in northern Mali
Seven former rebels were killed in northern Mali overnight, a spokesman of the group, the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA), said Monday. The alliance made up mainly of separatist Tuaregs and nationalist Arabs signed an accord with the national government in...
Sahel: Attack on bus in Mopti, Mali claims dozens of civilian lives
Suspected jihadists in Mali killed at least 30 civilians in an attack on a passenger vehicle in the volatile central town of Mopti, local officials said Saturday. "The passengers were sprayed with bullets and the vehicle was torched," during an attack by "terrorists"...
Sahel: Disasters hit Niger hard
By Boureima Hama Few countries in the world struggle with as many burdens as Niger. The arid Sahel state is the world's poorest country according to the UN's Human Development Index. It faces bloody jihadist insurgencies on two of its borders. And now it is being...