North Africa’s Security
Security | Defense | Terrorism
Sahel: Russia Reorganizes in Mali: Wagner Withdraws, Africa Corps Moves In
Russia has replaced the Wagner Group in Mali with its new Africa Corps, signaling a shift toward a more controlled and official military presence focused on training and intelligence. While the tactics may look different, Moscow’s long-term ambitions in the region remain very much the same—just better dressed.
SECURITY & DEFENSE
Libya: With Libya struggling to expel mercenaries, Germany wants another conference to help out
By Hui Min Neo Germany will host a new set of Libyan peace talks on June 23 in Berlin, with Libya's transitional government due to attend, the foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday. The conference follows a first edition in January 2020, and will take stock of...
Morocco uses threat of migrants to force Spain to change its position on the Western Sahara conflict
Morocco-Spain relations facing new challenges as Morocco focuses solely on Western Sahara politics By Hazel Ward, with Daniel Silva in Madrid - Migrants were still trying to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Wednesday after a record 8,000 people...
Sahel: Burkina Faso struggles with terror attacks in the north
Twin attacks in Burkina kill 16 Updated: May 19, 2021 - Attacks on a village and troops in the north and east of Burkina Faso left 15 civilians and one soldier dead, a regional governor and security sources said Wednesday. A brutal resurgence of jihadist violence in...
Libya: UN decries lack of progress in withdrawal of mercenaries from Libya
Libya has seen "no reduction of foreign fighters or of their activities" in the center of the country, says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a report submitted this week to the Security Council. "While the ceasefire agreement continued to hold, UNSMIL (the UN...
Sahel: Jihadists in Mali resorting in gruesome practice of amputating hands and feet of suspected thieves
UN peacekeepers in Mali on Thursday offered to help bring to justice jihadists behind the amputation of suspected thieves' hands and feet, an apparent revival of a practice that had all but vanished. Speaking on condition of anonymity, local sources in Tin-Hama in...
Sahel: No break during the Eid holiday: Five villagers killed in Niger’s Tillaberi region
Five people were killed on Wednesday in an attack on a village in the western Tillaberi region of Niger, near the border with Mali, as the country celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a local official told AFP. ...
Libya warns Italy over illegal fishing after incident with Italian trawlers
Libya's coastguard on Sunday warned against "illegal" fishing in its waters, denying Italian claims it had wounded a fisherman as it fired shots during an operation against four boats from Sicily. Citing "repeated, documented violations", the coastguard said that on...
Sahel: Chad military junta said it defeated FACT insurgents
Chad's military junta on Sunday declared victory after a month-long operation against rebels in the northwest of the Sahel country, parading 156 prisoners before the press in the capital N'Djamena. Fighting erupted on April 11, the day of a presidential election that...
Libya: Armed men stage show of force at presidential council HQ
Dozens of armed men staged a show of force late Friday at a hotel used as a headquarters by Libya's presidential council as the nation's deep divisions resurface. The country was plunged into chaos after longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted and killed in a...
Sahel: French journalist Olivier Dubois kidnapped in Mali
By Serge Daniel, Amaury Hauchard in N'Djamena - Missing French journalist Olivier Dubois says he has been kidnapped in Mali by a jihadist group with links to Al-Qaeda, according to a video circulating on social media on Wednesday. Here is what we know about the latest...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Egypt: Islamic State attacks army checkpoint in North Sinai, kills eight security agents
Cairo, June 5, 2019 - Militants killed eight Egyptian paramilitaries on Wednesday at a checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula, centre of a long-running jihadist insurgency, security and medical sources said. "Eight killed and three wounded were transferred to El-Arish...
Libya: NOC warns of possible collapse of oil production amid intensifying civil war
Tripoli, June 3, 2019 - The head of Libya's National Oil Company warned Monday against a "collapse in production" stemming from conflict in the North African country. Oil production "could collapse at any moment", said NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla, even as he cited...
Libya: Haftar troops unable to capture Tripoli, more violence ahead
Al-Swani, Libya, June 3, 2019 - As meat sizzled on a barbeque in a Tripoli suburb, Libyan fighters defending the capital from a military offensive rested during "the calm before the storm" on the front lines. "We don't deprive ourselves of anything," said a fighter...
Sahel: How Mali is descending into chaos
June 3, 2019 - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning of a "high risk" of atrocities in Mali in a report that calls for beefing up the UN peacekeeping presence in the strife-torn center of the country. In the report to the Security Council obtained by AFP,...
Morocco neutralizes another terror cell
Rabat, June 3, 2019 - Three suspects accused of belonging to a "terrorist cell" affiliated to the Islamic State group were arrested in Morocco on Monday, the country's anti-terror police said. The three men, aged between 26 and 28, were "in the process of preparing...
Niger Republic facing a Boko Haram onslaught
Comment by Arezki Daoud | 3 June 2019: Niger has now become the focal point of Boko Haram, plunging the Sahel into a more unstable region. With different insurgent and terror groups splitting and slicing the Sahel into their own fiefdoms, counter-terror there will...
Sudan army unleashes repression on protesters
June 3, 2019 - Egypt on Monday urged all sides in Sudan to return to the negotiating table as security forces moved to break up a weeks-long protest camp in Khartoum. Violence erupted at the sit-in outside the army headquarters in the Sudanese capital earlier in the...
Libya: UN evacuates vulnerable migrants from war-torn Tripoli
Rome, May 30, 2019 - Nearly 150 migrants from East Africa, including 65 minors and 13 babies under one, were rescued from conflict-torn Libya and airlifted to Rome on Thursday by the UN refugee agency. "Due to the violent clashes and deteriorating security conditions...
Morocco: Court adjourns in tourist murder case, suspect admits to crime
Salé, Morocco, May 30, 2019 | By Hamza Mekouar - The alleged leader of a jihadist cell accused of killing two Scandinavian hikers in Morocco admitted to the murders in court on Thursday, saying they were carried out in the name of the Islamic State group. Danish...
Libya’s power sector: collateral damage of the civil war
Tripoli, May 31, 2019 | By Nawas Al-Darraji: Precariously perched 50 metres up an electricity pylon providing power to Libya's capital, Mohamad Dahman attempts to fix damage caused by fighting -- but hastily descends when a rocket explodes nearby. "We're used to...