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
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...
Sahel: Niger reports major offensive against Boko Haram near border with Nigeria
Jihadist-hit Niger last week killed about 30 members of the Boko Haram group and detained 960 followers, most of them women and children, who had fled neighbouring Nigeria, official sources said. State TV channel Tele Sahel said late Tuesday that on March 7 aerial...
Sahel: Mali ratchets up communications on military offensive against insurgents
The Malian Armed Forces known as FAMA, have been increasing their communications to the media to showcase their alleged wins. Ever since the junta of Assimi Goita took over, there has been a greater emphasis on PR. Earlier this week, FAMA said that 153 "terrorists"...
Sahel: North and center-east Burkina Faso under curfew amid escalating insurgency
Burkina Faso has put the North and parts of the Centre East region under curfew to aid the fight against jihadists, according to official documents seen by AFP on Sunday. The long-running insurgency in the impoverished Sahel nation has left thousands of civilians,...
Sahel: Two prison guards killed during daring escape
Four jihadists have escaped from prison in Mauritania after a shootout left two national guards dead, the interior ministry said Monday, a rare event in a nation spared the insurgency sweeping through the Sahel. The incident, which took place in the capital on Sunday...
Close advisor to Vladimir Putin, Nikolai Patrushev, in official visit to Algeria
The head of Algeria's army hosted Russia's top security official on Monday to discuss boosting their military ties, the defence ministry in Algiers said. General Said Chengriha said the visit of National Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev reflected both...
France to scale back military presence in Africa
By Valerie Leroux: President Emmanuel Macron on Monday announced a "noticeable reduction" of French troop presence in Africa, where anti-French sentiment is running high in some former colonies. He was speaking in Paris ahead of a four-nation tour of central African...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Libya: The civil war’s human tragedy
Tarhuna, Libya: A year ago armed men took Mohamed al-Magri's son for questioning as fighting raged around the Libyan capital, and now he fears Haitham was killed and buried in a mass grave. Magri believes the masked men took his son at gunpoint in revenge, because his...
Though unconfirmed, western media report death of Al Qaeda leaders
The reported deaths of Al-Qaeda's top two leaders in recent months have raised questions about the future strategy and strength of the terror network, already a shadow of the global force it was two decades ago. The New York Times reported last week that Al-Qaeda's...
Libyan lawyer and media figure Hanan Al-Barasi murdered in Benghazi
A Libyan lawyer was shot dead in her car in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday, a security source told AFP, confirming local media reports. The lawyer, Hanan al-Barassi, "was shot dead in Road 20, one of the main commercial streets in Benghazi," said the security...
Sahel: Gunmen ambush bus in Mali, kill eight people
Gunmen have killed eight people in central Mali, a local official and security ministry staffer said Wednesday, in the latest violence to hit the war-torn Sahel state. Militants attacked a minibus Tuesday, the officials said, which was travelling between the towns of...
Security: France in Al-Qaeda’s crosshairs
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb urged its followers Monday to kill anyone insulting the Prophet Mohammed and threatened French President Emmanuel Macron over his remarks on Islam. Last month Macron defended the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed on...
Morocco: IS-linked inmate kills guard at Tiflet prison
A Moroccan prison guard was killed by an inmate who was in jail for belonging to a militant cell linked to the Islamic State group, prosecutors said Wednesday. The detainee on Tuesday "took captive an employee in his cell and assaulted him with a metal object" at...
Niger: US national kidnapped in Tahoua
An American citizen has been kidnapped by gunmen in southern Niger, a senior official told AFP on Tuesday. The American, described as the son of a missionary living in Niger, was abducted by six men armed with Kalashnikovs on the outskirts of Massalata, a village...
Mali: Attack on base in Mopti leaves dozen troops dead
Twelve Malian soldiers were killed in attacks on their base in the volatile centre of the country, the army said Tuesday, in the latest violence to hit the West African state. In a statement, Mali's military said an army outpost in the central Mopti region was...
Tunisia announces arrest of two Islamic State insurgents in Jandouba and Kebili
Tunisia on Tuesday arrested two men allegedly linked to the Islamic State group who were plotting "terrorist operations" in the North African nation, the interior ministry said. One was arrested in Jendouba, in northwest Tunisia, and the other in Kebili, in the south....
Niger: Daesh says it killed French aid workers in Koure on 9 August
The Islamic State extremist group on Thursday claimed the killing in August of six French aid workers and their two local guides while they were visiting a nature reserve in the West African country of Niger. The six French humanitarian workers, aged between 25 and...