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
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...
Sahel: More trouble in Mali as Touareg groups in north are up in arms over recent junta actions
Armed groups that signed a landmark peace accord in insurgency-hit Mali have alleged widespread fraud during voting in a weekend referendum for a new constitution. The Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), gathering political and military movements in northern Mali,...
Sahel: Burkina Faso endorses Mali’s call for the withdrawal of UN mission
Burkina Faso on Sunday hailed the "courageous decision" by Mali's military regime to call on the UN to withdraw its Minusma peacekeeping force, as both countries fight a jihadist insurgency. Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop on Friday had called for the immediate...
Debate: Does Saudi Arabia matter?
Does Saudi Arabia matter? An unscripted discussion between Arezki Daoud and Giorgio Cafiero: Saudi Arabia has been making big moves lately. Detente with Iran, re-engagement with Syria, a potential diplomatic path to solve the Yemen crisis and more. Domestically, its...
Algerians and Moroccans intensify Internet attacks on each other ($)
On November 9, 2021, Algerian radio station Radio M announced that the group of Moroccan hackers "MoroccoHack Team" was behind a cyberattack against the website of the Algerian Ministry of Finance. The former Algerian Minister of Communication and government...
Reports of Morocco getting Chinese drones amid rising feud with Algeria ($)
Media sources say Moroccan soldiers have recently undergone training in China on the use of new generation drones, the Wing Loong II. The information has not been confirmed by any official source and may be just information meant to confuse or a scare tactic as...
Niger adopting traditional conflict resolution methods to end communal conflicts
By Boureima Hama: Traditional chiefs, officials, human rights activists and NGOs have been criss-crossing the vast Tillaberi region of western Niger for several months. Their mission: to organise forums in a bid to ease community tensions revived by massacres of...
Sahel: Al-Qaeda-linked group claims deadly Mali attack on UN peacekeepers
An Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for an attack last week in Mali's deeply troubled north that killed two United Nations peacekeepers. Mali has been grappling with a political and security crisis since 2012 when separatist and...
Sahel: Second UN peacekeeper dies after attack in Mali
A UN peacekeeper has died of wounds sustained in an attack last week in Mali, raising the death toll in the assault to two, the United Nations said Monday. Mali has been grappling with a political and security crisis since 2012 when separatist and jihadist rebellions...
Mali: Attack in Tombouctou claims life of UN peacekeeper
Today, 09/06, one of our patrols near #Ber town, North of #Mali was targeted by a complex attack. It encountered an Improvised Explosive Device followed by a direct arm fire attack . Preliminary information: 1 #peacekeeper killed and 4 seriously injured. Updates will...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
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...
Mali: Fighting between hunters and insurgents wrecks havoc on Mopti region
About 40 people have been killed in recent clashes between jihadists and traditional hunters, the government of central Mali's Mopti region said Monday, with the fighting displacing around 1,000 people. The war-torn region's government said in a statement that clashes...
Sahel: West Niger gripped by deadly violence
Nineteen civilians were killed when armed men raided a village in west Niger close to the border with Mali, a local official told AFP on Sunday, in the latest bloodshed in the troubled region. "For the moment, the number of dead stands at 19 and two people have been...
Sahel: Terror attack in Burkina Faso claims lives of eight militiamen
Eight civilian members of an auxiliary force in Burkina Faso's anti-jihadist campaign died in an ambush on Wednesday in the north and others were still missing, security and local sources said. "A patrol of the VDP (Volunteers for the Defence of the Motherland) fell...
Niger’s new president term starts amid intense violence
Niger's defence ministry said Sunday that four of its soldiers had been killed the day before in twin "terrorist" attacks in the country's southeast, the day after President Mohamed Bazoum was sworn in. "Several terrorists" had been killed in the simultaneous Saturday...
Africa: With terror groups intensely fixated on Africa, security outlook feels gloomy
By Didier Lauras - From the arid expanses of the Sahel into the Sinai Peninsula and now Mozambique, Africa is proving fertile ground for jihadist groups looking to bolster their notoriety by exploiting conflicts that have often festered for years. The fighters who...
Libyan authorities on the hunt for killers of Al Warfalli, arrest suspect
Libyan authorities Saturday announced increased security measures in second city Benghazi and the arrest of two suspects in connection with the killing of a militia leader wanted by the International Criminal Court. Security is precarious in Benghazi with frequent...
Sahel: Attacks on Niger targets continue
Eleven people were killed on Wednesday in western Niger, a flashpoint for jihadist attacks, when armed men on motorbikes raided three villages near the Malian border, local officials said. "The assailants arrived on several motorbikes at around 5pm. They killed three...
Sahel: Niger’s Tahoua region targeted by terror groups, dozens killed in fresh raids
Scores of people have died in the deadliest suspected jihadist massacre ever to hit Niger, the government said Monday, underscoring the huge security challenge facing new President Mohamed Bazoum. Government spokesman Zakaria Abdourahamane said 137 people had died in...
Tunisia: Landmines claim more lives in Kasserine, two children killed in blast
Two children were killed and a woman wounded in a landmine blast Thursday in a mountainous region of western Tunisia known as a base for jihadists, the government said. The explosion occurred on Mount Salloum, in a military zone in the marginalised region of...