North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Egypt’s Red Lines in the Horn of Africa Are Becoming Explicit
Egypt’s expanding posture in Somalia and its firm stance on Sudan reveal a coherent security doctrine taking shape along its southern and southeastern perimeter. Cairo is drawing explicit red lines against state collapse, territorial fragmentation, and the emergence of parallel authorities in strategically sensitive areas of the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea basin.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
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...
Russian soldiers in the Algerian Sahara ($)
Algeria has apparently taken a distance from Russia, largely under pressure from the west, but also due to factions of the regime being influenced by France. But Algeria is almost exclusively dependent on Russia for its military equipment and is therefore not able to...
Niger: Soldiers sent to prison for attempted coup
A Niger court on Friday handed prison terms ranging from two to 20 years to several soldiers accused of attempting to carry out a coup in 2021. In March, Niger's government said it had arrested several people for participating in a coup attempt, two days before...
Sahel: Burkina Faso to raise troop level to intensify war against insurgents
Burkina Faso announced Thursday a recruitment drive for 5,000 soldiers to serve in the army for at least five years to aid the country in its fight against jihadists. The country, one of the world's poorest, has been battling a deadly insurgency since 2015. "An...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
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...
Tunisia: Knife attack kills policeman in Sousse, Islamic State claims responsibility
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Monday for a knife attack in Tunisia which killed one National Guard officer and wounded another, as security forces rounded up more suspects. The attack on Sunday morning in a tourist district of the coastal city of...
Niger: Intense counter-insurgency operation underway in southern Niger
Koure, Niger, Aug 10, 2020 - Troops in Niger backed by French air power launched a hunt Monday for the killers of eight people, six of them French nationals, as prosecutors in Paris announced a terror investigation into their deaths. "Search operations with our...