North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Mali’s Energy Collapse Deepens as Fuel Blockade and Infrastructure Decay Converge
Mali is sinking deeper into darkness as power outages, crumbling roads, and fuel shortages combine into a nationwide crisis. Months of blackouts and blocked fuel imports by jihadist fighters have crippled transport, trade, and daily life, exposing years of neglect in energy and infrastructure management.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
Sahel: 50 civilians killed in anti-junta protests in Chad
Djimet Wiche: Tensions eased in Chad on Friday following a day of unprecedented violence at protests that left around 50 people dead across the country. Chad's government had on Thursday announced an overnight curfew after the deadly clashes between police and...
Libya: 15 bodies found on Sabratha beach
Fifteen bodies were found on a beach near the Libyan city of Sabratha, some of them burned, the Libyan Red Crescent said Friday. The group did not identify the dead or say how they had died, but human rights groups said they were likely migrants. After being notified...
Sahel: Unstable Sahel creates new opportunities for insurgent groups
By Didier Laura: Burkina Faso's new rulers say they seized power to better fight jihadists, but history in the Sahel suggests the coup will merely stoke turbulence and division, benefiting the insurgents, analysts say. The poor, arid region has been wracked by...
Burkina Faso coup leader Ibrahim Traore crows himself country’s president
Captain Ibrahim Traore was appointed as president of Burkina Faso on Wednesday, according to an official statement, after the West African country's second coup in less than nine months. Traore has been appointed as "Head of State, Supreme Head of the Armed Forces",...
Sahel: Concerned about Russia’s presence in the Sahel, US warns Burkina Faso’s new junta
The United States on Tuesday warned Burkina Faso's junta of the risks of allying with Russia, whose shadowy Wagner paramilitary group has voiced robust support for the latest coup. "Countries where the group has been deployed find themselves weaker and less secure,...
Burkina Faso: As regime in Ouagadougou collapsed last week, terror attack claimed 37 lives up north
A total of 27 troops and 10 civilians were killed in a suspected jihadist attack in northern Burkina Faso last week, the military said on Wednesday. Military search operations carried out since the attack on September 26 "have made it possible to establish the death...
Morocco: Dozen alleged Jihadists arrested in Melilla and Nador
Moroccan and Spanish police have dismantled a jihadist cell suspected of links to the Islamic State group, officials said Tuesday. The operation led to the arrest of 11 people in raids on Tuesday morning: nine in the Spanish enclave of Melilla on Morocco's northern...
Burkina Faso: Deposed junta leader Colonel Damiba steps down, flees to Togo
By Olympia de Maismont with Pierre Donadieu in Abidjan: Burkina Faso's junta leader agreed to step down on Sunday, religious and community leaders said, two days after army officers announced his ouster in a coup that sparked internal unrest and international...
Libya: Another gruesome mass grave unearthed in city of Sirte
Forty-two bodies have been found in a mass grave in the Libyan city of Sirte, an ex-stronghold of the Islamic State group, the country's missing persons authority said Sunday. Exhumation teams unearthed "42 unidentified bodies" after following up reports of a "mass...
Sahel: Burkina Faso coup leader removed by another coup
By Olympia de Maismont with Pierre Donadieu in Abidjan: Security forces fired tear gas to disperse angry protesters outside the French embassy in Burkina Faso's capital on Sunday, as unrest simmered in the impoverished West African nation following a reported second...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Sahel: Massacre in Chad
N'Djamena, March 24, 2020 - Ninety-two Chadian soldiers have been killed in the deadliest attack ever by Bok o Haram jihadists on armed forces in the country, President Idriss Deby Itno said Tuesday. The attack is part of an expanding jihadist campaign in the vast,...
Sahel: More insurgent attacks across the Sahel
March 25, 2020 - Two soldiers in Mali and three civilians in Burkina Faso died in suspected jihadist attacks in the Sahel on Tuesday, a day after Islamist rebels killed scores of troops in Chad, security sources said. The two soldiers were killed and three others were...
Sahel: The Norwegians want nothing to do with the crisis in Mali, and they are right!
Opinion by Arezki Daoud: Unlike their Swedish neighbors, the Norwegian people told France that they will not send more troops to Mali. And the Norwegians are right. The Sahel does not need more troops, it needs a political solution first that will then be worth...
Nigeria: Dozens of soldiers killed in insurgents’ RPG attack in Borno
Kano, Nigeria, March 24, 2020 - At least 70 Nigerian soldiers were killed in an ambush on their convoy by jihadist fighters in the restive northeast, military and security sources said on Tuesday. Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at a lorry carrying troops...
Libya: Troops of warlord Khalifa Haftar kill civilians in Tripoli
Tripoli, March 19, 2020 (AFP) - Libya's unity government said Thursday that five women were killed and five civilians wounded in Tripoli the previous day in bombardment by the forces of eastern-based military strongman Khalifa Haftar. Amine Al-Hachemi, spokesman for...
Sahel: Niger hits Boko Haram hard, kills dozens of insurgents
Niamey, March 16, 2020 - Fifty fighters of Nigeria's Islamist group Boko Haram were "neutralised" during an overnight clash in the southeast of neighbouring Niger, the government said on Monday. The defence ministry said "heavily armed terrorist elements of Boko Haram...
Sahel: Swedish soldiers headed to Mali in yet another French operation
Stockholm, March 16, 2020 - The Swedish government plans to send up to 150 soldiers to Mali to support a French military initiative combining special force troops from different countries. "The government has decided to put a bill to parliament... for Swedish...
Egypt: Six suspected insurgents killed in Sinai
Cairo, March 16, 2020 - Egyptian police have killed six militants in a shootout in the restive northern Sinai region, the interior ministry said Monday. The firefight broke out as police forces raided a hideout of "terrorist elements" intent on carrying out "hostile...
Sahel: Couple kidnapped in Burkina Faso in 2018 regains freedom
Bamako, March 14, 2020 - A Canadian woman and her Italian partner kidnapped in Burkina Faso in 2018 have been found alive in the northwest of Mali by UN peacekeepers, diplomatic and UN sources said on Saturday. "UN blue helmets found an Italian citizen and a Canadian...
Sahel: Africom commander speaks of ineffective European strategy in the Sahel
Washington, March 10, 2020 - European anti-jihadist efforts in the troubled Sahel region are "insufficient" and "uncoordinated," a senior US military official said Tuesday. "I think that Europe can and should do more before America should do more in this part of the...