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
Morocco and Spain arrest two people they say are supporters of Islamic State
Police in Morocco and Spain said on Wednesday two people have been arrested in a joint operation by both countries' security services targeting "terrorists". An Islamic State jihadist group supporter "active between Morocco and Spain", was arrested Wednesday by...
Burkina Faso: Attackers kill civilians in the Sahel Province
An armed attack in northern Burkina Faso, an area plagued by jihadist violence, has left about 10 civilians dead, security and local sources told AFP on Thursday. A large group of armed men descended on the village of Sampelga, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the...
Mali: MINUSMA convoy attacked near Gao
Armed men attacked a logistics convoy of the UN mission in the north of Mali on Thursday, a source at the UN peacekeeping mission told AFP. "Unidentified armed individuals opened fire against a logistics convoy of the Minusma force moving from the (locality of)...
Libya strongman Haftar issues new threat over oil revenue
Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who backs the politically-split country's eastern administration, has threatened military action unless oil revenues are divided fairly by the end of August. The country sits on Africa's biggest oil reserves but the wedge...
Libya: Base hosting Wagner mercenaries supporting warlord Haftar attacked by drones
Drone strikes early Friday hit an airbase in Libya's east used by mercenaries of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, without causing any casualties, a military official told AFP. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the origin of the overnight...
Sahel: UN Mission to leave Mali, but no timetable set yet
By Amélie Bottlier-Depois: With the imminent end of the UN's Mali peacekeeping mission seemingly no longer in doubt, negotiations at the UN are still foundering over the timetable for their departure, which Bamako wants "without delay", according to diplomatic...
Mali: Civilians killed by terrorists in Gabero region
At least 13 civilians have been killed by suspected jihadists in chronically unstable northern Mali, elected officials who requested anonymity said on Wednesday. "The provisional toll is now 13 dead, a dozen wounded and hundreds of people fleeing several villages in...
Sahel: Nearly 80 troops and insurgents die in clash in northcentral Burkina Faso
At least 31 Burkinabe soldiers and three allied volunteer militiamen (VDP) have been killed in an attack by suspected jihadists in the country's north, security sources said Tuesday. Dozens were also killed in a separate attack on Monday, the latest in one of the...
Sahel: Cocaine trafficking surges in the Sahel, as armed groups seek to profit from illicit trade
Annual cocaine seizures in the Sahel surged from 13 kilograms (28 pounds) in 2020 to 863 kilos just two years later as armed groups sought to profit from the illicit trade, the United Nations' drug agency said in its 2023 report. The largest seizures of the drug in...
UN peacekeeping missions in Africa at a crossroads
By Amélie Bottollier-Depois: When Mali recently called for a UN peacekeeping force to depart the country "without delay," it was the latest sign of unease in parts of Africa over the role of the so-called Blue Helmet operations. Mali Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Sahel: No break during the Eid holiday: Five villagers killed in Niger’s Tillaberi region
Five people were killed on Wednesday in an attack on a village in the western Tillaberi region of Niger, near the border with Mali, as the country celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a local official told AFP. ...
Sahel: Chad military junta said it defeated FACT insurgents
Chad's military junta on Sunday declared victory after a month-long operation against rebels in the northwest of the Sahel country, parading 156 prisoners before the press in the capital N'Djamena. Fighting erupted on April 11, the day of a presidential election that...
Libya: Armed men stage show of force at presidential council HQ
Dozens of armed men staged a show of force late Friday at a hotel used as a headquarters by Libya's presidential council as the nation's deep divisions resurface. The country was plunged into chaos after longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted and killed in a...
Sahel: French journalist Olivier Dubois kidnapped in Mali
By Serge Daniel, Amaury Hauchard in N'Djamena - Missing French journalist Olivier Dubois says he has been kidnapped in Mali by a jihadist group with links to Al-Qaeda, according to a video circulating on social media on Wednesday. Here is what we know about the latest...
Sahel: More bloodshed in Niger as new attack in Banibangou claims 15 soldiers
Niger's government said Wednesday that 15 of its soldiers were killed in a "terrorist attack" near the border with Mali, bringing to 31 the number of troops killed in four days. Niger's defence ministry said "heavily armed men" had attacked troops serving under the...
Sahel: Clashes in Niger intensify, dozens killed
Niger army killed 24 'suspected terrorists': government Niger troops killed 24 "suspected terrorists' after they sought to escape after being captured in the west of the country, the government said Sunday. The suspects had been planning an attack on the market town...
Sahel: Chad army and opposition rebels clash in Kanem
Government troops and rebels clashed on Thursday in a region of western Chad where president Idriss Deby Itno was killed earlier this month, a spokesman said. The fighting in the desert region of Kanem, near Chad's border with Niger, pits Libya-based rebels against...
Mali: Three UN peacekeepers wounded in Mali attack
Three United Nations peacekeepers were on Sunday seriously injured in a rocket attack on a military base in the north of the conflict-ridden Sahel state, UN and local officials said. Olivier Salgado, the spokesman for the UN's MINUSMA mission in Mali, said the attack...
Sahel: Lawlessness in northern Chad
Northern Chad is a restive region and a breeding ground for rebel groups which oppose the N'Djamena authorities. A lawless zone abandoned to illegal gold miners and gangs of traffickers, the troubled Sahel region is scarcely populated and difficult to control. The...
Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula continues on its path to complete instability
Egypt's interior ministry said Monday it killed three "terrorist elements" in the Sinai Peninsula suspected of involvement in the execution of a Coptic Christian claimed by an Islamic State-affiliated group. "National security received intelligence about a group of...