North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Sahel: Violence in Northern Mali Drives New Wave of Displacement Into Mauritania
More than 3,300 people have fled northern Mali into Mauritania in recent weeks as armed violence, fuel blockades, and civilian abuses intensify, underscoring the deepening humanitarian and security crisis spreading across the Sahel.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
Rwanda promises help to Benin in fighting terrorism
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame met Saturday with his Benin counterpart Patrice Talon, promising military support to help the country contain spillover from jihadist conflict across its northern border with Burkina Faso. West Africa coastal nations Benin, Togo, Ghana...
Sahel: Crisis in Sudan forces Chad to close border
Chad's government announced Saturday it was closing its border with Sudan after battles erupted between rival military factions in the neighbouring country. Sudan's army carried out airstrikes against the bases of a paramilitary force, as weeks of tensions between two...
Sahel: Clashes between Niger army and Boko Haram continue along border with Nigeria
Niger's army said its troops had killed around 20 jihadists and arrested 83 others in an operation against militants on its southeastern border with Nigeria. Troops supported by air power attacked jihadists who have been using Matari forest in Nigeria as a rear base...
Sahel: Death toll in Mali due to insecurity was up 54% in 2022 to nearly 1,300
The number of people killed in Mali continued to increase in 2022, a UN report said Wednesday, also linking more than a third of human rights violations to security forces. The UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, was created in 2013 to help stabilise the country as it...
More releases of kidnapped persons in Sahel may signal easing of conflict between West and insurgents to focus on Russian threat
Photo: AQIM's Abu Ubaidah Youssef al-Annabi: Arezki's opinion: It may be too early to conclude that there is an easing of tension between Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and France, in particular. But there are some tidbits of evidence that suggest a potential...
Niger secures release of kidnapped French journalist Olivier Dubois and American aid worker Jeffery Woodke
By Camille Laffont: A French journalist and a US aid worker who had been kidnapped by jihadists in the Sahel have been released, an AFP journalist saw Monday. French freelancer Olivier Dubois and American aid worker Jeffery Woodke emerged from a plane that landed at...
Libya recovers previously missing 2 tons of uranium
More than two tonnes of natural uranium reported missing by the UN's nuclear watchdog in war-scarred Libya have been found, a general in the country's east said Thursday. General Khaled al-Mahjoub, commander of eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar's communications...
Africa: Competition between France and Russia over Africa is getting more violent
By Barbara Debou: On a night in early March, arsonists attacked a brewery owned by the French drinks giant Castel in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic. Hurling petrol bombs, they set fire to beer crates stacked inside the MOCAF brewery's fortified...
Sahel: Secretary Blinken visits Niger as US worries about Russia’s expanding influence in the Sahel
By Shaun Tandon: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Niger on Thursday for a rare visit to a country seen as a bastion of support for Western military operations in a region where Russia is making inroads. Blinken is the first US official at this level to...
Moroccan police announce arrest of three suspected militants
Moroccan police on Wednesday arrested three suspected members of the Islamic State group over the killing of an officer whose charred body was found this month, the authorities said. The two main suspects were detained following "security operations" in Casablanca and...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Mali: Two more French soldiers killed in IED explosion in Menaka
Two French soldiers died when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in northeastern Mali on Saturday, just days after three others were killed in similar fashion. Their deaths brought to 50 the number of French soldiers killed in the West African nation...
Sahel: Three French troops killed by EID in Hombori, Mali
Three French soldiers were killed Monday in Mali when their armoured vehicle struck an explosive device in the Hombori region in the centre of the poor Sahel state, the French presidency said. The deaths brought to 47 the number of French soldiers killed in Mali since...
Algeria alleges ransom money paid to Jihadists in Mali making its way into Algeria
Algeria's army has retrieved a "slice of the ransom" cash paid out to free hostages held by "terrorist groups" in the troubled Sahel region, the defence ministry has said. Soldiers "recovered the sum of 80,000 euros" ($97,900) during an operation in Algeria's...
Libya: Despite series of talks to bring peace in Libya, warlord Haftar threatens more violence
Turkey tells Haftar to back off Turkey's defence minister said that any attack by eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar on its personnel in the North African country would be met with force. "A war criminal, murderer Haftar and his supporters must know that they...
Egypt: More unrest in Egypt with explosion of gas pipeline supplying El Arish
A blast hit a gas pipeline in Egypt's restive North Sinai region Thursday, a security source told AFP. "An explosion occurred (Thursday) evening along the main gas pipeline supplying the city of El-Arish," the source said, referring to the provincial capital. The...
Sahel: Funding the insurgency with illegally acquired gold
Several "suspected terrorists" were arrested and more than 40,000 sticks of dynamite and detonator cords for illegal gold mining -- a new source of funding for armed groups in the Sahel -- were seized in a joint operation with the UN, Interpol said on Monday. Jointly...
Tunisia: Shepherd in Kasserine beheaded, authorities say attackers are terrorists
The decapitated body of a young man has been found in Tunisia's central Kasserine region, in a probable "terrorist" attack, a justice official said. "The decapitated body of a young man has been found... and it is probable that a terrorist group was behind the...
Sahel: Boko Haram raids village in southern Niger, kills 27
Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist group on Monday claimed responsibility for the weekend attack on a village in neighbouring Niger that left 27 dead. More people were wounded and some reported missing in the assault on Saturday evening on Toumour in the Diffa region, said...
Egypt: How both the military and IS terrorize the people of Sinai
Residents of Egypt's restive North Sinai region ran for their lives when an Islamic State group affiliate occupied their villages. Now, they are returning to find their homes booby-trapped. "I lost my sister-in-law and her nine-month-old baby when an explosive device...
Algeria alleges and decries ransom payment to ‘terrorists’ by foreign government
Algeria's prime minister has sounded the alarm over reported ransoms paid to "terrorist groups" for the freeing of hostages, weeks after the liberation of a French aid worker in Mali. "Algeria notes, with great concern, continued transfers to terrorist groups of huge...