North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Sudan Conflict: Egypt’s Military Escalation After the Fall of El‑Fasher
Egypt appears to have shifted from diplomatic broker to covert combatant in Sudan’s war, with new evidence pointing to drone and air strikes launched from a secret base in the Western Desert. Satellite imagery, flight logs and investigations indicate that Egypt has established a covert airbase at the East Oweinat agricultural project, roughly 65 kilometers from the Sudanese border, to launch strikes against Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targets deep inside Sudan. The operations mark Egypt’s evolution from cautious mediator to active, if deniable, belligerent on the side of Sudan’s Armed Forces, as the conflict becomes the focal point of widening regional proxy rivalries involving the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
Niger military junta accuses France of plotting counter-coup
By Boureima Hama: Niger's new junta on Monday accused France of seeking to "intervene militarily" to reinstate deposed President Mohamed Bazoum as tension mounted with the former colonial power and neighbours. Bazoum, a western ally whose election just over two years...
Niger: ECOWAS threatens Niger junta to return power to civilians
African leaders on Sunday gave the junta in Niger one week to cede power or face the possible use of force, and slapped financial sanctions on the putschists, after the latest coup in the jihadist-plagued Sahel region raised alarm on the continent and in the West. In...
Niger: Army General Abdourahamane Tchiani leads Niger’s new ruling junta
By Boureima Hama: Niger's putschists named an army general as the new leader of the unstable jihadist-hit nation on Friday and warned that any foreign military intervention would lead to chaos. General Abdourahamane Tchiani, head of the Presidential Guard since 2011,...
Niger: Army sides with presidential guard in ousting president Bezoum
Niger's armed forces chief on Thursday declared his support for troops who announced they had seized power, despite a defiant stand by the country's president, Mohamed Bazoum. In the latest turbulence to shake the coup-prone Sahel, Bazoum was confined on Wednesday by...
Podcast: Sahel: North Mali is bracing for more violence
Mali in the Sahel region is facing unprecedented crises. With the withdrawal of France forces and the upcoming pull out of the #UN peacekeepers, along with the actions of the Russian mercenary outfit the Wagner Group, the Malian population in the north known as the...
Niger in the footsteps of Mali and Burkina, coup in the offing
The Militarization of the Sahel By Boureima Hama: An attempted coup was underway Wednesday in the Sahel state of Niger as President Mohamed Bazoum was being held by members of his guard, who in turn were given an ultimatum by the army, sources said. The West African...
Sahel: Gunmen kill dozen civilians in Niger’s Tillaberi region
Gunmen have attacked two villages in Niger's vast Tillaberi border region, killing a dozen people working in the fields, security and local sources told AFP on Friday. "There were 12 deaths following the attack on Thursday afternoon by armed men," a municipal official...
Algeria reacts to Israel’s backing Morocco in Western Sahara conflict
Algeria on Thursday denounced Israel's backing of Morocco's "claimed sovereignty" over the disputed Western Sahara region as a "flagrant violation" of international law. The Western Sahara conflict pits Morocco against Sahrawi separatists of the Algiers-backed...
Sahel: Germany and Mali agree ‘smooth’ pullout of UN-backed troops
Germany and Mali agreed Thursday to pursue a "smooth withdrawal" of German troops from the troubled African nation after the UN decided to end its decade-old peacekeeping mission there, Berlin said. Mali's defence minister Sadio Camara assured his German counterpart...
Mali: Ethnic Tuaregs brace for attacks from army and Russian mercenaries ($)
The departure of the French forces and the forthcoming exit from Mali of the UN peacekeeping mission known as MINUSMO, are creating a new set of problems for the Sahelian nation of Mali. In particular, the northern political elite representing the Touareg nation are experiencing a major leadership crisis. There is a lack of consensus among Tuareg leaders as to the way forward, but all of them anticipate the central government in Bamako to take advantage of the absence of foreign observers to launch an offensive against the populations of the north.
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Mali: Bomb blast in Timbuktu wounds four Malian civilians and six French soldiers
A suicide car bomber attacked French troops patrolling in central Mali on Monday, according to France's military, wounding six soldiers and four civilians including a child in the war-torn West African country. The French soldiers, who were travelling in a vehicle,...
Sahel: Soldiers killed, UN troops wounded in Mali
Two soldiers have been killed in an ambush by suspected jihadists and eight United Nations troops wounded by a landmine in conflict-riven Mali, military and UN sources said Sunday. "Two of our men were killed by terrorists on Saturday night in an attack on one of our...
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...
Nigeria: Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau declared dead by rival ISWAP
By Aminu Abubskar When Nigeria's military claimed Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had been badly wounded in an air strike 2016, the jihadist chief soon appeared in a video to deny another of the many reports of his impending death. Over the weekend, it was an audio...
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...
Libya: Efforts to stabilize Libya stymied by persistent violence
Two members of Libya's security forces were killed and five others wounded Sunday evening in a car bomb blast at a checkpoint in the country's south, a police source said. "A car bomb exploded as it was crossing a roadblock set up by the security forces" in the city...
Sahel: Death toll in latest terror attack on Solhan in Burkina Faso updated to 160
Details of the massacre Suspected jihadists killed 160 people -- including 20 children -- in the village of Solhan in Burkina Faso's conflict-wracked north on the weekend, in the deadliest attack since Islamist violence reached the West African country in 2015. Here...
Sahel: Massacre in northern Burkina Faso
UN chief Antonio Guterres is "outraged" over the massacre of civilians in Burkina Faso's volatile north, his spokesman said Saturday, the deadliest attacks since Islamist violence erupted in the west African country in 2015. "The Secretary-General is outraged by the...
US offers cash rewards to locate Al-Qaeda’s Al-Annabi
The US State Department posted a $7 million reward Wednesday for information leading to the location or identification of Abu Ubaydah Youssef Al-Annabi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The department said Anabi was declared the emir of the...
Sahel: Burkina Faso struggles with terror attacks in the north
Twin attacks in Burkina kill 16 Updated: May 19, 2021 - Attacks on a village and troops in the north and east of Burkina Faso left 15 civilians and one soldier dead, a regional governor and security sources said Wednesday. A brutal resurgence of jihadist violence in...