North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Algeria and Niger Restore Ties, Signaling a Shift in Sahel Diplomacy
Algeria and Niger restored diplomatic relations after nearly a year of tensions triggered by regional security disputes. The return of ambassadors and a planned high-level visit signal renewed cooperation centered on energy development, border security, and regional trade. The rapprochement highlights the strategic importance of the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline and reflects broader efforts to stabilize partnerships across the Sahel amid ongoing security and economic pressures.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
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...
Niger: Thousands of coup supporters gather in Niamey stadium
Thousands of supporters of the military coup in Niger gathered at a Niamey stadium Sunday, when a deadline set by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to return the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum to power is set to expire, according to AFP journalists. A delegation...
Sahel: Chad acquires military vehicles and security gear from the UAE
The United Arab Emirates has sent military vehicles and other security gear to Chad in support of anti-"terrorism" efforts and border rotection, the oil-rich Gulf state said on Sunday. Chad is a neighbour of Niger, where a coup late last month toppled one of the last...
Nigerian president Tinubu under pressure to avoid war with northern neighbor Niger
By Camille Malpat with Aminu Abubakar in Kano, Nigeria: Political leaders in Nigeria are urging President Bola Tinubu to reconsider a threatened military intervention against junta leaders in neighbouring Niger, ahead of a Sunday deadline to reinstate the country's...
Niger: Coup leaders get popular support amid rising regional tensions
By Boureima Hama with Delphine Touitou: Thousands of people rallied Thursday in Niger's capital in support of the coup that toppled the democratically elected government, as security concerns mounted among Western nations. Demonstrators in the heart of Niamey, some...
Sahel: West African states getting stressed over coup in Niger, do not rule out military action
Senegal said Thursday that it will participate if the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decides to intervene militarily in Niger following last week's coup. Foreign Minister Aissata Tall Sall told reporters during a government press briefing in the...
Niger: Nuclear industry in France seeks to appease concerns over Niger’s uranium
The military coup in Niger last week raises the question of Europe's dependency on uranium mined in the West African nation for its nuclear power plants. France's nuclear fuel firm Orano, formerly part of Areva, operates a uranium mine in the north of the country,...
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,...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Burkina Faso: Mass casualty in ambush on policemen near Barsalogho
Around 10 policemen have been killed in an ambush by suspected jihadists in northern Burkina Faso and several more officers are missing, security sources told AFP on Tuesday. "On Monday evening, a group of police officers were targeted in an ambush by armed...
Sahel: Mali Church officials report kidnapping of Catholics in Mopti
Armed men in central Mali have abducted five Catholics, including an abbot, Church officials said Tuesday, in the latest kidnapping in the war-torn Sahel state. The group disappeared on Monday while travelling from the mostly Catholic area of Segue in the centre of...
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...