North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Morocco Allegations Reignite Spain’s Pegasus Debate
New reporting has revived scrutiny of the 2021 Pegasus intrusion targeting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s phone, focusing on the Ceuta visit as a potential operational opening and renewing debate over attribution, accountability, and Spain’s wider relationship with Morocco, including questions raised by Morocco’s growing security ties with Israel.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
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...
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...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
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...
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...