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
Libya: Authorities find bodies of people in Benghazi likely killed execution style
The bodies of 11 people bearing gunshot wounds were discovered on Thursday in eastern Libya's Benghazi, said a security source, suggesting they had been "executed". "Security forces were alerted on Thursday of the presence of 11 unidentified bodies at the southern...
Repression: How the Egyptian army destroyed the Sinai in the name of the “war on terror”
Egyptian troops have demolished more than 12,300 buildings in the Sinai Peninsula since 2013 in a campaign of forced evictions that likely amount to "war crimes", Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. A decade-old jihadist insurgency in North Sinai province escalated in...
Libya: Foreign meddlers continue to maintain thousands of mercenaries in Libya
Libya's prime minister-designate demanded the departure Tuesday of an estimated 20,000 foreign fighters as he sought support from lawmakers to help end a grinding civil war in the North African nation. Oil-rich Libya descended into chaos after dictator Moamer Kadhafi...
Senegal braces for Jihadist spillover from the Sahel
Senegal's President Macky Sall said Tuesday that his native country and neighbouring West African states must "prepare to do battle" to stop jihadist expansion beyond the Sahel. In an interview broadcast that day by French radio RFI, the president also urged a more...
Egypt-USA: Biden administration maintains support to Egypt’s Sisi, sells him more weapons
US President Joe Biden's administration on Tuedsay approved a nearly $200 million arms sale to Egypt but vowed to press human rights issues after a US activist reported harassment of his family. The Biden administration -- which has vowed to end support for Saudi...
Libya: Mortar attack on Sebha kills child
The United Nations on Wednesday condemned a suspected "targeted mortar attack" in southern Libya that it said killed a child and wounded 29 people. The reported attack in the Sebha region, some 650 kilometres (400 miles) south of the capital Tripoli, took place on...
Libya: UN grapples with stubborn presence of mercenaries in Libya
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for all foreign troops and mercenaries to leave war-torn Libya during a meeting with the country newly appointed leader Tuesday, his spokesman said. Guterres "spoke separately with the President of the...
Sahel: No French troop drawdown from the Sahel, Macron announces escalation ahead
Macron says France to “decapitate” Al-Qaeda in the Sahel France will intensify its efforts to help "decapitate" Qaeda-linked groups in the Sahel, President Emmanuel Macron told regional leaders via video conference on Tuesday, according to AFP. Macron said the efforts...
Sahel: UN peacekeepers from Togo wounded in attack near Kerena in Mali
Around 20 United Nations peacekeepers were wounded in an attack on their base in central Mali on Wednesday, a UN spokesperson said, offering a provisional toll. Unidentified militants attacked a temporary base near Kerena, a village in the war-torn centre of the...
Western Sahara: Tensions running high as Polisario Front says three Moroccan soldiers killed in attack in Touizgui
In response to this article As a former journalist, I sympathize with others who struggle to find the correct wording to describe territories and movements. However, I must take issue gently with the item in today's weekly recap on the Polisario attack in southern...
INSURGENCIES & TERRORISM
Morocco arrests seven terror suspects
Rabat, April 23, 2019 (AFP) - Moroccan authorities said Tuesday they have arrested seven suspected jihadists with links to the Islamic State group. The suspects, aged between 22 and 28, were "supporters" of IS and suspected of planning "terrorist acts", the central...
Sahel: Dozen soldiers killed by insurgents in Mali
Bamako, April 21, 2019 - Suspected jihadists killed at least 11 soldiers in an attack Sunday in central Mali, the defence ministry said. The military outpost at Guire was attacked at around five in the morning, the ministry said, adding that there were also a number...
Algeria: The collapsing central state and the inevitable fall of the house of cards
By Arezki Daoud - 18 April 2019: A remnant of the Bouteflika regime, Tayeb Belaiz had the decency this week to resign under the intense pressure from the streets. He is just one card of the many that form this very fragile house of cards that is the Algerian...
Morocco: Arrest of suspect allegedly plotting terror attack on Spain
Madrid, April 17, 2019 (AFP) - Police have arrested a suspect in Morocco allegedly preparing a jihadist attack on Seville, the southern Spanish city known for its Holy Week processions, Spain's interior ministry said Wednesday. The intelligence and police services of...
Libya: How the Internet and new media are worsening the crisis in Libya
Tripoli, April 18, 2019 - On Libya's front lines, fighters often hold a gun in one hand and a smartphone in the other, using their cameras in the propaganda war. Since strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to seize the capital Tripoli, most Libyans have...
Libya: Unity government issues arrest warrant for Haftar
Tripoli, April 18, 2019 (AFP) - Libya's unity government on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for strongman general Khalifa Haftar for allegedly ordering deadly air strikes against civilian areas. Six of Haftar's officers were also named in the warrant issued by the...
Libya: UN envoys predicts doom in Libya
Tripoli, April 18, 2019 - The UN's Libya envoy warned Thursday of "a widening conflagration" in the North African country, saying international divisions had encouraged strongman Khalifa Haftar to launch his assault on Tripoli. But for now, Ghassan Salame told AFP in...
Libya: UN Security Council debates over ceasefire while Tripoli crumbles
Tripoli, April 17, 2019 - The death toll from rocket fire on the Libyan capital Tripoli, blamed by the UN-recognised government on strongman Khalifa Haftar, climbed to six on Wednesday as thousands more civilians fled the violence. The latest bombing came as world...
Sahel: Boko Haram attacks military base in Bouhama, Chad
N'Djamena, April 15, 2019 - Fighting between Chad soldiers and Boko Haram jihadists killed dozens, including 63 "terrorists", in an overnight attack on a military base, an army spokesman said Monday. Seven soldiers were killed and 15 wounded when "the terrorists...
Libya: The battle for Tripoli rages on, 147 killed
Tripoli, April 15, 2019 - At least 147 people have been killed and 614 wounded in the offensive launched on April 4 by Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar to take the capital Tripoli, the World Health Organization said Monday. The clashes have displaced more than...