North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Defense: Mauritania and Spain Use Naval Exercises to Bolster Atlantic Maritime Security
Mauritania and Spain have carried out joint naval exercises off Nouadhibou, built around a port visit by the Spanish patrol vessel Furor and focused on navigation safety and operational coordination. The drills, paired with visits to Mauritanian military installations, signal a tightening maritime partnership in Atlantic waters that are central to security, fisheries, and migration routes. Officials in Nouakchott present the cooperation as part of a broader effort to strengthen maritime stability and protect shared interests at sea.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
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...
Libyan warlord Haftar invites the Russian military
Russian military officials including Moscow's deputy defence minister arrived in Libya on Tuesday after receiving an invitation from pro-Moscow military strongman Khalifa Haftar. Haftar, who backs the country's eastern administration, is close to Russia's private...
Sahel: Political situation in Niger worsens with African Union suspending membership
By Aymeric Vincenot: The African Union said Tuesday that it had suspended Niger's membership in the wake of a military coup, but responded cautiously to a threatened military operation to restore its ousted president, as Nigerien TV said 12 soldiers were killed in a...
Sahel: Boko Haram strikes in Konduga, Nigeria, killing 13
Suspected Boko Haram jihadists have killed 13 people including three soldiers in two separate attacks in northeast Nigeria, local militias told AFP Sunday. Gunmen launched a predawn attack on Saturday on a base in Wulari, a village near the town of Konduga in Borno...
Sahel: Mali government troops and their Wagner allies are now attacking the ethnic Touaregs
By Arezki Daoud: As I have been saying for a while, the Malian junta is leveraging its honeymoon period with Russia's Wagner group and the withdrawal of the UN peacekeepers to unleash mayhem against the northern Touareg tribes. The army and Wagner mercenaries attacked...
Mali: Mali junta face more disgruntled Ethnic Touaregs
Regional rebels in Mali who signed a peace deal in 2015 have withdrawn their representatives from the capital, a move signalling a widening rift with the country's ruling military, one of their leaders said on Thursday. The Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA)...
Niger: ECOWAS walks away from early threat of using force to restore deposed president
West African leaders will make negotiations with the military leaders who have seized control in Niger the "bedrock" of its attempts to defuse the crisis, stepping back from a threat of military intervention to restore the elected government. "It is crucial that we...
Morocco: 50 people arrested in anti-terror sweeps ($)
Morocco arrested 50 individuals, including 21 kept in preventive detention, following a nationwide raid on terror suspects conducted on July 26, 2023. The sweeps were conducted by the National Brigade of the Judicial Police (BNPJ) and the General Directorate of...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
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...
Libyan journalist Siraj Abdelhafid al-Mogassbi kidnapped in Benghazi
A Libyan journalist was kidnapped Monday in the country's second city Benghazi, the government media authority said. Siraj Abdelhafid al-Mogassbi was seized from the offices of Al-Hayat newspaper where he works, it said in a statement. It said unknown assailants...
Sahel: New Jihadist attacks in Mali and Burkina Faso
Four Malian soldiers were killed by suspected jihadists Sunday and several others wounded in an attack northeast of the capital Bamako, near the border with Mauritania, the army said on social media. The soldiers, on post at Guire, in the Nara region, fought off an...
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...
Elusive peace: Libyan militias damage only functioning oil refinery during violent clash
Libya's only operational oil refinery was "severely" damaged after gunmen battled for three hours around the complex, the National Oil Corporation said. "The Zawiya Oil Complex was severely damaged as a result of skirmishes by armed groups," Libya's state oil company...
Algeria: IED explosion kills border guard during patrol mission in Tlemcen province
An Algerian border guard was killed and two wounded on Wednesday evening when a bomb went off near the Moroccan border, the defence ministry said Thursday. The home-made device exploded as they passed during a patrol to "secure the borders and tackle organised crime",...
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: IED kills 16 soldiers between Koro et Bandiagara in Mali
Sixteen soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in an attack in central Mali on Wednesday, security and health officials in the war-torn Sahel state said. In a statement, Mali's army said the troops had been the target of a "complex IED attack" -- referring to an...
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...
Libya: Water supply to west and south Libya cut because of political terrorism
Libyan authorities have shut water supplies to swathes of the country after gunmen demanding the release of a jailed Kadhafi-era official threatened to sabotage the water network. Supplies to western and southwestern Libya were interrupted overnight Saturday to...