North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Libya’s Path to Stability: Still Blocked by Fragmentation and Armed Rivalries
Libya ends 2025 still divided between rival governments and dominated by militias. Clashes, rights abuses, and stalled reforms keep the security outlook fragile. Limited local elections show resilience, but lasting stability depends on unified institutions and accountability.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
Tunisia: Three political parties under investigation over alleged foreign funding
Tunisia's judiciary has opened an investigation into allegations political parties received foreign funding ahead of national elections held in 2019, the prosecutor's office told AFP on Wednesday. Three parties are under investigation, the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha...
Libya: Militia gang leader Mohammed al-Kani gunned down
A Libyan militia gang leader accused of major human rights violations has been shot dead at a farm in the eastern city of Benghazi, a military source told AFP Tuesday. Mohammed al-Kani was gunned down after resisting members of the military who had arrived bearing an...
Sahel: Insurgency is destabilizing Burkina Faso, with mass population displacement
Record numbers of people in Burkina Faso have become internally displaced or fled abroad as a result of jihadist violence, the UN's Refugee Agency said on Friday. In the first half of 2021, 237,000 people fled to other parts of Burkina Faso, compared to 96,000...
Sahel: French troops kill two ISGS regional leaders in Mali
France said Friday that its forces had killed two senior leaders of the Islamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS) group in Mali in an attack coordinated with the US. French Defence Minister Florence Parly said the attack hit a camp in the Menaka region of the west...
Morocco grapples with the Pegasus spyware problem
Morocco files French libel suit over Pegasus spyware claim Morocco has filed defamation claims against Amnesty International and a French NGO who claim its intelligence services used the Pegasus mobile phone spyware against dozens of French journalists, lawyers for...
Middle East: Carnage in Baghdad with dozens killed in suicide attack ahead of Eid
By Salam Faraj: Iraq was in mourning Tuesday for dozens of people killed when a bomb ripped through a crowded Baghdad market on the eve of a Muslim feast in what the Islamic State group claimed as a suicide attack. The bloody carnage Monday evening, one of the...
Sahel: French warplane crashes in central Mali
A French Mirage warplane crashed in an uninhabited area of central Mali on Tuesday after suffering a technical malfunction, but its two crew ejected and were quickly recovered, the French army said. The plane was carrying out surveillance near the town of Homburi in...
Sahel: Failed assassination attempt on Mali’s interim president
Assimi Goita’s Profile By Amaury Hauchard with Laurent Lozano in Dakar An enigmatic special forces commander, Mali's interim leader Assimi Goita is known to be publicity-shy but with a penchant for power. He grabbed headlines in May when he ousted Mali's former...
Libya’s normalization efforts at an impasse
The UN envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, on Thursday warned of an impasse in the political, security and budgetary plans for the country, which is supposed to hold general elections on December 24 but which are looking increasingly in doubt."I am deeply concerned about the...
Catholic hostages freed in Mali
A Malian priest -- the last of a group of five Catholics kidnapped in mid-June -- has been freed, church and government sources said Wednesday. Armed men took the five people hostage in the centre of Mali on June 21 after they left Segue to attend the funeral of...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Libya: UAE weapons used by warlord Haftar
Dubai, July 2, 2019 - The UAE denied Tuesday it shipped US missiles to Libya, which is under a UN arms embargo, after a democratic senator warned Washington could cut off arms sales to the Emirates. The foreign ministry "denied the ownership of weapons found in Libya...
Libya: Haftar’s embarrassing defeat in Gharyan may complicate the Libyan civil war
Tripoli, July 2, 2019 - By Imed Lamloum - Libya's military strongman Khalifa Haftar, by provoking Turkey, seeks to divert attention from battlefield setbacks and draw in his backers, at the risk of a proxy war between regional rivals, experts say. The strongman of...
Libya: Haftar frees Turkish sailors before it is too late
July 1, 2019 - Six Turkish sailors held by forces led by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar have been freed, a Turkish foreign ministry official said on Monday. "The sailors are free. According to their wishes, they continue to work," said the official, speaking on...
Libya: Warlord Haftar complicates his situation as he loses Gharyan
Benghazi, Libya, June 29, 2019 - Strongman Khalifa Haftar has threatened to attack Turkish interests in Libya after suffering a serious setback in his push to take the capital Tripoli, accusing Ankara of backing his rivals. Anti-Haftar forces supporting Libya's...
Morocco: Lawyers speak of Moroccan government failure to track terrorists, as suspects face death penalty
Salé, Morocco, June 27, 2019 - Lawyers for the family of a Danish hiker murdered last year in Morocco said on Thursday that authorities had failed to monitor the activities of some suspects before the killing. Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and...
Tunisia: Main attacks in Tunisia since 2011 revolution
Tunis, June 27, 2019 - Two suicide bombers attacked security forces in the Tunisian capital on Thursday, killing a police officer and wounding at least eight people including several civilians, the interior ministry said. One attack on the main street of Tunis wounded...
Morocco: Killers of European tourists in Morocco face death penalty
Salé, Morocco, June 27, 2019 - (By Ismail Bellaouali) - Moroccan prosecutors on Thursday called for the death penalty for the three main jihadist suspects on trial for the "bloodthirsty" murder of two young Scandinavian hikers. The maximum sentence was sought for...
Libya: Setback for warlord Haftar as Tripoli forces retake Gharyan
Tripoli, June 26, 2019 - Libyan forces opposed to Khalifa Haftar claimed Wednesday to have retaken Gharyan, a strategic town where the controversial strongman's fighters were based in the west of the country. "Gharyan is under our total control," said Mustafa...
Tunisia: Tunis rocked by twin terror attacks, as President fights for his life
Tunis, June 27, 2019 - Double suicide attacks shook Tunisia's capital Thursday, even as the country was plunged into uncertainty with the hospitalisation of President Beji Caid Essebsi who was said to be in "critical condition". The violence revived fears for the...
Sahel: Two gendarmes killed in terror attack in Burkina Faso
Ouagadougou, June 25, 2019 - A "terrorist attack" left two gendarmes dead and one seriously wounded in the north of Burkina Faso where jihadist violence has raged since 2015, the national police said Tuesday. The attack occurred Monday in the Arbinda region, where a...